"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 25 May 2007 10:44:59 GMT, "JoeSpareBedroom"
wrote:

"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
. ..

Sound like over zealous cops and shoreline owners to me.

No shoreline owners of anything for a half mile in either direction.

Then either the original post was incomplete or we are missing
information.

Sorry - bad explanation. When I saw "shoreline owners", I immediately
thought "residential". This *is* the marina to one side, and its floating
docks are no more than 25 feet out of the channel. Floating docks also at
the launch, 50 feet from the channel on the opposite side. Narrow inlet,
boulders on either side.

Again, it's probably interpretation, but the law requires you to slow
down to a speed in which there is no wake.

One way to interpret it is that you slow down prior to approaching the
No-Wake bouy so that you are producing no wake when you enter the
zone.

Another way is that this starts the No-Wake zone and that any legal
speed up to the point of where the bouy is is fine.

This reminds me of a case in CT 20/25 years ago. The town involved
had a two lane state highway running through it - the normal speed
limit at the time was 50 mph. Right at the town line, the speed limit
dropped to 25.

The locals wrote tickets all the time right at the 25 mph speed limit
sign up until they, and the state, were sued by a UCONN law professor.
Turns out that while you certainly can change the speed limit, there
is a reasonable expectation of warning that there is a slower speed
limit ahead of which there wasn't any.

So if automobile case law is any guide, reasonable expectation would
indicate that if you are in a No-Wake zone and there is no warning
that there is a No-Wake zone ahead, then no ticket it warranted if the
bouy isn't placed appropriately to allow for slowing down.

And before the argue anything contingent chimes in, yes, yes, I know
about charts, zone markers, yada, yada, yada. To those I would say
this - do you read a map everytime you drive down the road?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)


I have a solution: Violators should be required to park their boats at the
adjacent marina for 4 hours on a busy Saturday, in the slips that are
completely exposed to wakes.