From: barnhill@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: rec.boats
Subject: Re: Bayliner myths: a challenge
Date: 11 Sep 92 13:49:59 CDT
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

Amongst other pretty good thoughts, it is written:
> 
> I kind of wonder how much of it has to do with the way boats
> are marketed today. I grew up around boats, and they were not
> nearly as aggressively marketed back then. My father also taught
> me to respect the water, and always be the guy who pulls the th-
> rottle back when there is a standoff, whether I have the right
> of way or not.

Yep.  Me too.
> 
> I strongly support licensing requirements for boaters, and I
> feel that in order to buy any boat capable of high speed, one
> must complete some sort of fast boat driving school. Something
> along the lines of Wellcraft's Scarab driving school would be
> a good place to start. (It's only available to Scarab owners.)

Didn't I get the living s*%t flamed out of myself last year for 
suggesting something similar during the thread on whether or not
boats had to be lic. in Mass., or something similar?  I still 
think that it would be a good idea; it would have to have some 
incrementa effect, if only to eliminate the rentals.
> 
> One way I use to see how much experience a person has in a boat
> is to watch them launch and trailer it. A good boater in a well
> rigged boat can be in or out of the water in under 3 minutes with
> ease, and never has to leave the helm. An inexperienced boater
> seems to take all day, and they always have ONE person do all
> the driving (of the tow vehicle, and the boat). This means that
> they have to pull up, dock (usually blocking the ramp in the pro-
> cess), go get the tow car, and finally get the boat on the trailer
> (usually with alot of wading, and harsh words towards one another). 
> Sailboats are a bit different in this regard, because of their
> odd shape, low power, etc..

Also who jumps the line at the ramp, who acts like an asshole when 
someone obviously has some sort of mechanical difficulty which is
preventing them from moving along in an orderly fashion, etc.  I came
very, very close to taking out a couple of college students a week or
two ago who were hasseling two women whose rudder had broken on a 
sailboat; they were giving these gals serious, nasty grief, and while
I was accompanied only by my girl (15&8) children myself, I decided that two
guys who had nothing better to do than pick on women were probably not
much of a match for one angry mid-thirties old hippie type.  Still like
to smak the little ba**ards.  They split pretty quick.  There was, btw,
an open ramp available to them, they just HAD to use that one.
> 
> IMHO, there are alot of people out there who don't know what they
> are doing, from the moment they drop the hitch over the ball. I'm
> not saying this to sound elitist, it's just that I see more people
> do stupid things in one day at the lake than I see the rest of the
> week.
> 
> -- Mike

Mike, you're on target.  Having boated since before I can remember, and
having raised my kids the same way, I have yet to have a moment of terror
which was as a result of anything other than my not paying attention to
wind, waves and other boaters.  Even with years of experience, we make
mistakes --- but hopefull we learn, and we don't repeat them.  I am in
particular shocked by the numbers of folks who boat lit up on booze...

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