bouyhunter

I fail to see the humor in this.

VinMan

I agree!

bouyhunter

Yeah - he's alive, and his boat only hit a bridge.
Good thing there was a bridge there for the un-manned boat to hit.
If the bridge hadn't been there, it could have hit... Just about anything, and anyone.
I'm glad the guy is OK.
And if I'm a Killjoy for being safe on the water, so be it.
I'd rather govern ourselves before we are goverend by the state.

ScarabMike

Tom,

After my last bridge incident I was staying as far away as possible unless he was in danger.

Looking forward to AC. Are you staying for Saturday night also?

Tom A.

Yes, I am. Can't wait to see you down there.

Tom A.

There is no humor in the event happening. I may have presented myself off color and it was not meant to be that way. Boating regularly in that area I am surprised more of these rental idiots don't do that. I am a huge proponet for safety lanyards and kill switches (see my post in the lanyards thread). There is an inside joke with me and ScarabMike that has nothing to do with this particular incident.

bouyhunter

Tom A. I wasn't pointing out any comment specifically.
We on this board have a tendency to run amok with a topic when we get a chance - and I'm all for good fun, and enjoy getting in on the busting on each other.
I just don't think we should laugh too much about any boaters misfortune/lack of safety. It hurts all of us in the end with more regulations, higher insurance, etc...
I just kinda wanted to put it out there before we went to crazy with our humor.

VinMan

I like a good laugh as much as anyone. But, it seems that any mishap involving a "non high-performance boater" is ok to laugh at on here. Only adds to the "egotistical Cigarette boat driving jackass" opinion that most of the people out there have of us to begin with.
Personally I dont like to see any boater,( power, sail, canoe, pwc, rowboat etc...) involved in ay kind of incident where someone could have been hurt or killed.

CAP071

I could stand out back of Coast Guard Station, which is right next to a small boat rental place and stop people all day long for unsafe practices.

First thing that goes on the rental boat is the cooler, which I'm sure is filled with Evian spring water for the hot day out on the water. Let's start the day off by trying to show off to friends how they can chug a quick 1 at 6am just before leaving the dock

Then the uneducated in boating safety boat renter climbs aboard with no knowledge of the area and just takes off thinking he is the great navigator,christoper columbus only to run a ground directly behind the Coast Guard Station

As they stand up and wave their arms towards us asking what happened and can we help them, We reply with

start by put your PFD on, then Try staying in the marked channel, and this may sound crazy but boating sober is a requirement by law.

Oh and the sure sign a rental boat is being driven while under the influence of budweiser is when you see them making fast figure 8's out in Barnegat Bay as they try to knock their friend off, who also happens to be practicing his E A G L E S cheer while attempting to stand up and balance his can of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Shore Thing

I worked at Suntime boat and jetski rentals on the south river in annapolis all through high school. It should be illegal to rent boats to people without a boaters safety certificate of their own. The state would allow us to give a 10 question test for a temporary certificate. They could take the SAME test as many times as required to get the necessary passing grade. It was ridiculous. I can't even begin to tell you how many boating accidents we dealt with each year.

That being said. At least a rental boat is clearly marked on the side as a rental. This means STAY AWAY.

What really scares me are the guys who go out and buy their own boat with even less knowledge then the ones who were given instructions by the rental center staff. The bottom line is, it will never be safe on the water until they adopt a licensing system similar to a state drivers license.