the more negative they read... the higher it gets.

I've already been "yelled at" for trying to get stories about what happened in a crash recently. I totally agree that insurance companies read what goes on here and on other boards. However, I think they (insurance investigators) are going to get to the bottom of the truth one way or another.

I really don't think it's cool to blame others on here who are trying to get info on a crash claiming "big brother is watching and we have to watch what we say". Because the main point is, in all reality it is every single persons responsibility to be accountable for their OWN actions and not do something to jeopardize their safety or the safety of others. It all comes down to accountability. Something too many people in this world are lacking.

Accidents are accidents and should be handled as such. Unfortunately a lot of the times (especially recently) negligence and other poor decisions come into play. And you say we have to worry about what is said and look out for someone who just threw all of us under the bus. I don't believe that is mine or any one else on OSO's responsibility.

Reading about mishaps on OSO_ has made me a much safer boater.

Thank you.

I agree that these threads can be informative to safety, and yes, we all want to "know what happened".
But, we're a pretty loose group here. We are on here to talk and joke with other performance boaters - and share information, or help one another out. We all like to crack a joke, or take a little jab at a buddy on here, but all those things can be taken out of context.
I'm less concerned about the insurance Co.s - they are gonna raise their rates every year, and we all know that.
My concern is the groups that want to impose speed limits, unncessary NO-WAKE zones, and more legislature to confine our freedom on the water.
Maybe we need to take it upon ourselves when and where to make a joke, or jest about the fact that it was a "stepped" hull etc.., the people that don't know anything about this hobby/sport don't get the joke, and certainly aren't taking the time to educate themselves. And then they attempt to use our freindly ribbing against us for their cause.

Totally good valid points, especially from Thisistank. But I'm a little ... um ... mystified, if that's the right word, how reading about mishaps has made 42Fountain a "safer boater."

Again, people involved in accidents aren't coming on here and saying they made this or that mistake. I haven't read "I overtrimmed it" or "I turned too hard" or "It started chine walking and I couldn't control it." I've never read anything like that here, and I don't expect to.

Please direct me to a thread like that if I'm wrong.

Does simply knowing that fast boats can crash, and that crashes are worse when they're going fast, make anyone a safer boater? Because really, that's all you get from the retelling of these incidents, at least as they tend to evolve in threads.

My god guys, if we don't know that turning too hard can cause a boat to roll or overtrimming at high speed can lead to a loss of control or that drinking and driving a boat is dangerous and stupid, we're lost. No amount of information about recent accidents will save us.

I think it's a whole lot more honest to say we're just curious. We want to know what happened because everything about this sport, even the bad stuff, fascinates us.

I have read tons and tons of useful things here ... truly amazing stuff. But the accident threads are born out of curiosity and not much more. Besides the cautionary lessons of all accidents, things like accidents are usually the culmination of a series of things gone wrong rather than one thing, there's just not much to gain from hearing these stories. Especially second-hand.

But a few people still don't know what the lanyards are for.

I still don't see how that little peice of string is going to keep me in the boat when it spins. Hell, the dang thing comes unhooked with just a slight tug.

D.A.P.

I agree that "hearsay is hearsay" regarding accidents. Unless it comes from someone directly involved, the truth was probably stretched in some way or another.

I don't think anyone is going to come on OSO and say what they did wrong when they had an incident.The fact of the matter is when you hear of an accident, like 1 person drowned after a boat accident because they were NOT wearing a lifevest, that reinforces (maybe subconsciously) to us to wear lifevests.

Sometimes accidents (serious or not serious accidents) can remind us that boating can be a dangerous sport and we all must try to make good, sound judgements while boating.

I can't speak for DT 42, but my take on where he is going would be that sometimes when we hear/read of these things it does make us stop and think about our own boating habits, and that is not necessarily a bad thing, that is to learn from anothers mistake or misfortune.

I fully agree with your comments regarding "general stupidity" in regard to how one handles any boat, especially a high performance one. And really agree with the comment regarding drinking of any sort when boating, yet so many do this on a regular basis. I applaud the law makers here in New York for the recent changes in the law, and making a BWI as serious an offense as a DWI, with consequences and hefty fines. I only hope they actively begin to enforce this stronger law. I'm all for a cocktail at the end of a day, once the boat is back in the slip, I just don't want to share the water with some dumb a$$ that is half in the bag and thinks he's invincible.