good point! i've attended several of the jobbienooner parties and it really is out of control. :eek:

Good informative story Rob, we should all really think about how many times we have been lucky.

Nice post Rob.. That sitution brings everything into reality. I may sound like a young immature punk, but when it comes to the boating I rarly have a beer during the day. I don't drink till the covers are on the boats usually. I have seen some buddies do some wild stuff. We will be running WFO down the lake and they are about 10-12 ft away from me laughing, I just back off and let them go.. The people who ride with me know I am serious when boating so if they are drunk they realize they need to pay attention to what they are doing. With all the inexperianced new boaters out there and jet skiers it's scary to think they may have been drinkin, plus barely know how to manuver or drive there boat.


It's better to be safe then sorry.

Travis :cool:

I kow exactly what you mean Rob.
I have boated for many years and really hate all the drunks that think it goes together.
People want to drink, fine. But be sensible about it. The year that I bought my boat I was running through the gorge on the way to the Sandbar in Havasu. There were two boats right in the middle of the river.
We slowed down and was going on the right side of them. As soon as I sounded the horn the one on my port side took off. RIGHT IN FRONT of me. He took a hard right to turn around. I had to throw the sticks into reverse doing about 10mph right after coming down from on plane. This guy pulls up beside us and starts yelling his lungs off at my brother. My brother is going off on this guy and then I start the same. The ass gets pissed and throws his can of BEER at us.
Well lets just say my brother and I both empty our cooler of mountain dew BOTTLES at him. Cops were called and the works.
Cops hauled his ass away at the ramp and took his boat. I got a ticket for disorerly conduct for 50 bucks :(
I am sure he had a few welts on him and his boat. His can missed us all together.
It was a real bad deal. Everyone including myself did not handle it right.
If I cannot give enough right of way I shut down and idle around people.

Hugh, that's a shame when people act like that, but I've seen it all too often, mostly from jet ski's that turn in fron of you, and you pull back to keep from killing them and when they finally see you, they look at you like "What are you looking at??" If they only knew...

I have found out that over the years that the less people in your boat, the less things to worry about, PERIOD! I sold my boat over the summer, but when I was using my boat, it seemed to work out much better when I had "boaters" on my boat, because they knew what what involved in boating, washing boat when done,sharing the $$$ for fuel(hell, you pay for the boat, the tow vehicle & the insurance, they can pay some $$ for fuel!), safety,etc... Usually, I would tell people the rules when they got in my boat, (boaters usually already know what to expect)and it worked out fine for me. I have gone to Havasu many times where I didn't drink or had 2 drinks over the whole day just to be safe. Sometimes its hard when everone else is partying hard with no worries because you are there to make sure they are safe,hopefully we can all have friends that we can do this with. I have friends that I can do this with, its cool. If you ever have an incident(or get stopped by police) you will be thanking God you were sober! Just imagine being stupid and being hammered and having an accident and getting sued and losing everything you worked hard for, F%$K that!

Hey Semper, haven't seen you on here in a while. How's Cali treatin' ya.

Rob, Good post man, got me thinking about a lot of situations that could have been tragic like the time my girlfriend at the time slapped me on the back as hard as she could in choppy water at 75 mph because she was scared. Now I give people a briefing when we idle out just to clear up who is in charge and if I tell them to do something, don't be a smart ass and question me just do it and I'll be glad to answer questions later.

hey semper fi, I am agreeing with the too many people thing to a point, I can have 5 in the back seat, two in the rear stand up bolsters, and I only want one next to me in the passenger bolster, so it's not near as confusing with the 4 bolster set up I have, compared to say, my friends cigarette, he always has 10 poeple aboard also, and it's just a big mess, I wouldn't have that many If I didn't have the room for them all to sit of stand in a bolster, usually couples double up in the rear bolsters for max fun for everyone.

I have a few things I do for "non-boaters" who get on my boat.
1) I give them a basic lesson on what is forward/reverse, where the gas is, and steering. If I have time, I'll show them how to take off, trim up, etc...It makes them feel important and if something bad were to happen to me they just might be able to drive.
2) If it's at night, EVERYONE is asked to keep an eye out for other boats, bouys, etc...even if you THINK you see something, sound off.
3) Drinking is fine, but as soon as it get's out of control you will be driven home immediately and not asked back.
4) Never f*ck with the driver when he's behind the wheel. Wait until I'm at idle if you need something or deal with it yourself.
5) My signature saying is, "I can either sit behind the wheel and drive this boat, or I can be screwing around with the anchor lines, bumpers, stereo, whatever. I can't do both at once...you decide." They generally get the hint... ;)

good point Rob, alot of people dont realize how fast things happen at speed. ya gotta be on your toe's all the time ,keep a clear head. hell i like ta drink as much as the next guy (and with us boaters that can be alot) but ya gotta know when the right time for that is. the 3 largest repair jobs i did last year were alchol related. 2 of the 3 were the same boat/same guy and only about a month after the first repair.$22,000 for one $8,000 on the last, on a $285,000 boat you'd think he would learn his lesson.third guy did $10,000 damage with a shot to a channel marker. funny thing is, it is the same marker the first guy hit :rolleyes:

by the way rob, you mind if i contact you about your cat(the one on your home page) . i am looking at a very similar boat and have some questions. thanks

BE SAFE ALL :cool: :cool:

[ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: glassdave ]