How do laws like this work when you come from another state? Unlike
driver's licenses, where every state requires one, the same isn't true
of
for boats. I live in California and boat in Arizona and Neveda all of
the
time. None of these three states have education laws as far as I know,
but I'm sure its not too far off.


***********

That may vary from state to state. I believe the new WA State law 1)
recognizes boater education cards from states with similar requirements
and 2) allows a brief "window" where a short term charter customer can
operate a boat, an out of stater can bring a trailer boat here, or a
new boat owner can take delivery of a boat without having to sit
through license class first. After 60-90 days, the rules apply. The
charter boater and the out-of-state trailer boater will be long gone,
of course, but the new boat owner should definitely either be sitting
in class or passing the equivalency exam that proves he doesn't need
the classroom education.

On 17 Apr 2005 20:34:24 -0700, wrote:

That's the way it is supposed to work here too, but it doesn't. You
can give boater education classes and require licenses or certificates
until you are blue in the face - a jackass is a jackass regardless.
If you don't enforce the laws that are presented in the class, then
what's the point?

**************

Jackasses come in two basic varities. First is the deliberate jackass-
the guy who really does know better but insists on playing the craphead
anyway. Education won't do anything for the deliberate jackass. The
second is the ignorant jackass- the guy who isn't out to see what he
can screw up in the world, and would change his ways if he knew better.
Promoting boater education will reduce the number of ignorant
jackasses, and therefore make a dent in the total number.

Get back to me in a year - if it's anything like CT, nothing is going
to improve.

Later,

Tom