Ironmanwb

I have to agree, on Lake Erie where I do 99% of my boating there are tons of accidents, people hitting reefs, running over break walls and all kinds of other sh!t. There are very few collisions with other boats but there are a ton of people who hit islands and all kinds of other things in the water.

Most of the time it is cruisers or fishing boats, but the moment it is a go fast it makes headlines.

Last year a smaller cruiser about 26ft slammed into an island and actually was going fast enough that it was suck on a cliff 10 ft out of the water. There was never a word in the paper about it. The driver was drunk and his brother was thrown from the back of the boat through the closed cabin door and died.

There were 2 coast gaurd boats, 1 helo and 3 tow boats on the scene and a ton of concerned boaters around also. How can this not make the front page.

A go fast boater in the same situation would have been crucified simply because of the type of boat he had, whereas this guy was just given the "oh you poor thing treatment"...............I hate that double standard sh!t.





Oh yeah I would not like the min night speed on Lake Erie but I can see where it would be of benifit on smaller more congested bodies of water.

However I have heard that people just turn off their running lights and run WOT so they can't be seen or caught.......very dangerous.

Most good boaters know the limits of the water and boat accordingly, the Idiots will always be idiots and no law can change that.

itilldo

Here's food for thought...If you impose speed limit at night that means when all of the bars finally close and they kick me out it will take me longer to get home. So if you keep an open speed limit at night that means I can get home faster.

Seriously, I do not agree about making speed limit laws for boats. We "go fast style boats" will take the hits publicly before any bass, cruiser type of boat out there and that’s the facts. Just my 02

US1 Fountain

iTrader: (1)

Why are the poll results showing a different take from what is being posted?

speedstick

The above was taken from the other Winnipesaukee thread today, but also applies here.

cigarette38topgun

LOTO has a 30mph speed limit at night......water patrol is out all the time at night and enforce the speed limit strictly....There is also parts of the lake that are "idle only" durning the weekends...One area is by party cove to help reduce the washing machine effect from all the boat traffic.....I think it is a good idea to help reduce accidents but there will always be irresponsable boaters out on the lake....

Underdog88

For me a min plane speed would be an improvement as Ohio State Parks all have a 5mph speed limit from dusk to dawn. So it's kind of a trick question for me. I didn't vote

Wobble

Being pro is not necessarily popular with many of the more outspoken members.

Michael1

Actually, YES! I guess you don't remember that Montana had no speed limit during the late '90s, and before the '74 55 mph national speed limit. Nevada also had no speed limit prior to '74. Montana's death rate actually dropped after the 55 mph speed limit was repealed, and they went back to "reasonable and prudent". The German Autobahn has no speed limit, and their death rate is lower than American Interstates.

Speed limits are set by politicians, not engineers. They often don't make sense for that very reason.

Let's get to the root cause. Hasn't just about every one of these accidents occurred because some idiot was drinking and mowed down another boat or rammed an immovable object? If you want to cut drastically cut down these accidents, and I mean drastically, have a zero alcohol tolerance after dark. Have the water cops wait at the dock and run breathlizer tests on everyone coming in. Sober people don't need a speed limit.

Michael

tommymonza

No more LAWS. The whole U.S. is drowning it them.

COMMON SENSE goes a long way.

Even 30 mph is too fast in my book ,unless you are on a wide body of water and there is a clear nite with a near full moon or better.

Absolute minimum planing speed comes in very handy when you need to stop.Any thing above and you better be able to steer out of it.

Tone down the instrument lights or turn off and keep your heads up and lookout far ahead .Don't take yours eyes off for a minute because stuff can come up on you very fast

I used to come home in the dark on a nightly bases 5 times a week through some pretty trickie waters.

I almost ran over the
sheriff one nite who was running with no lights {SCARY}. He did not say a word he knew he was in the wrong .

And on another occasion I was almost ran over fron the stern by someone running about 40 in the dark compared to my 20.
That was a lesson to keep a vigilant lookout to the stern also because you never know who is haulin azz thinking their the only one out there.

ActiveThunder

I forgot about this thread.

My wife and I were out in the dark in Stuart, FL up on plane at MAYBE 20 mph looking for the channel and markers on a well lit night.

We struck a concrete piling at the very last second after I saw it. It ripped the side out of the boat. We were lucky and it stopped me from running at night.

As to the drinking, there was none.

Until you can come up with legal driving lights on a boat, stay at the dock after dark or idle.