|
Originally posted by txboater 2 weekends later I had one ask me for a tow 20 yrds from the ramp. I told him to swim! We should respect the people on a Jet Ski, I understand that a lot of them are mindless people, but they are just learning the waters. I believe that I would rather be hit by someone on a Jet Ski than a rich kid and his first boat being a 42 fountain or something of that nature. I have seen many an "Offshore Boat" leave a bar in a drunken state and act worse than many of the Jet Ski people. |
For whatever reason these guys think they can outrun us. I've almost hit several, but the closest I've came was when a jetskier took off beside me on the starboard side and when I was finally pissed enough to hammer it because he was running so close, he darted right in front of me and if I wouldn't have got out of it, I would've ran right over him. I was fighting mad and all he could say was "you guys think you own the lake".
|
Coddington,
You are right, that is not proper. Just frustration. Had he not been so close, I doubt very much I would not have assisted. He also had an attitude! I also towed in blow boats, and all sorts of vehicles. Heck even blocked traffic one day so no-one would run over a small dog that jumped off a cabin curiser! I got a lot of fingers and expletives that day. Like Mcol said. It is never 100%. It is down to the individual. I just think that if you are bewtween the markers, you should not be allowed to criss cross traffic. And yes I have seen "go fast" boats doing it as well. The thought of hitting a PWC scares the heck out of me though. It cannot be pretty! |
1 Attachment(s)
How do you think they would feel after getting clipped by a PROPELLER ? I don't understand why they are so careless. If they want to wave jump so bad, then go where the waves are. In the Ocean...
|
i called the cops on a PWC one days last summer.
Usually i'm not the kind of person to do this but this guy could have killed someone. He had an 1100 (3man) and had at times 5 people on the back of it. Was pulling donuts in a nowake zone gunning it from the dock (no wake zone) spraying other boats down with his jet and speeding around for hours no more than 100' from shore all in the morring area/no wake zone. Best off maybe 1 or 2 of the people on it had a PFD and he had a cooler strapped to the back. and it was full of beer, Well empties at that point. He could visibley be seen pounding them down WHILE DRIVING!!!! Finally after he almost hit my boat while i was docked i was like this is enough and called harbour patrol on the radio. Within 10 minutes they showed up and actually arrested him. Did a breathalized and man was he ****faced. Called a Nassua county squad car and took him off in handcuffs for a DWI. I think he got a host of other tickets too. some people have more money than brains. |
Came close several times...I always take the stand that no matter what, they can't see me. I think two are alive today for that very reason. The terror in their eyes when they finally looked up to see my boat coming off plane as they dart in front of me was something to see...good thing the water concealed their pee stains!
Someone hit the nail on the head...these things are designed to fly around in anything but a straight line and that tends to get them in trouble...The larger lakes should designate an area specifically for them and let them have at it... |
mcollinstn:
I agree with you completely. Each of us have our own right to enjoy the waters as wee see fit! For some of us that means boating. For others, it means riding a PWC, and still others simply want a quiet day lying on the beach. For those, I'm sure our loud, fast, cool boats are extremely offensive. My personal preferred mode of water enjoyment is to be rippping up and down the lake as fast as I can in my boat, and then pull into a quiet cove, throw out the anchor and crank up the tunes!!:D :cool: However, I have four small children that absolutely love to ride our two jet-skis. I just took delivery of the new STX 1200R 3-person race model. It should be stable, fast (close to 70 mph) and all around a blast to ride. Being kind of AC/DC on this issue, I have to say that I have seen extreme rudeness from both the PWC crowd as well as the boating crowd. Boaters in my area (mostly small lakes) truly think they own the water and absolutely throw a fit if you come within 300 feet of them. PWC'er's also are totally untrained and can be a danger particularly in close quarters. Most of it seems to be closely related to age. The youger the PWC rider is, the more likely they are to cause problems. While this may be an over-simplification of the problem, in my home state (KS.) you must only be 12 yrs old to ride a PWC solo. they do require passing a certification at that age, however. I really don't know the answer to this problem, but it would seem that education on BOTH parties would help tremendously. OK, you can fry me now. :D |
In Connecticut, it is required by law that you take a boater safety course to operate any vessel including jetskis. You have to take a test and get a card, like a license. I'm not saying that there aren't people out on the water that are just plain stupid on jetskis, but the police do stop them a lot and check to see if they are legal to operate them. It's a pretty large fine if you are driving without a license. I personally own a boat and a jetski and I enjoy them both. Jetskis can be a lot of fun. As a boater I know the danger involved and the rules of the "road". There are plenty of boaters out there too that don't have a clue what they are doing, but not as many as jetskiers because jetskis are relatively inexpensive.
Just my .02 Ted |
Originally posted by mcollinstn I own three of the little boogers. Love 'em. In '91 me and a friend collided after playing in circles spraying each other. I spun my ski in front of my buddy and was a bit closer than I had been the other times. It panicked him and he let off his throttle. No steering. His ski ran over the front of mine. Some cracked fiberglass, but no injuries. We never got that close again. This was on 35mph Yamahas. My brotherinlaw bought a 50mph Kawasaki and invited all of his friends over to ride it (and mine - I had no idea about his party). He gave no instruction whatsoever. He just pointed to the skis and turned them all loose. One of his friends and his wife were riding one of my yamahas and the wife on the Kawasaki. She ended up aimed at him at some point. Off the throttle. Pow. Broken ribs, collarbone, concussion, loss of consciousness, ambulance, police. By then it was 1992. Since that time, I have never allowed anybody to ride any of my pwcs without a "lesson". Granted, I do all of the stuff that pwcs are good at: wake jumping, spinning, spraying, s-curves. BUT I am always aware of where all other boats, buoys, other pwcs are around me. I never veer from a straight path without a thorough "head-check" behind me on both sides. I am teaching my kids to do the same. I currently only let my boy ride the slow one while I am, with him on the other. Technically, he is still a year too young to be by himself, but we only let him ride solo in the early mornings WITH ME when there is no boat traffic. Any other time he rides on the 1200 with me. Yes, he usually drives it (which is legal in TN with me on the back) but I constantly correct him when he forgets to turn and look, gets too close to a boat or dock, etc.. We have lots of stupid kids riding them on the lake and I try to take note of the worst ones and hunt them down when I am on my ski. They usually will stop and let you talk to them and are usually receptive to well-worded criticism as long as they don't have a girlfriend with them. These little boats are a royal blast and it is a shame that people refuse to treat them with respect, and refuse to show respect to other boaters when they are on them. I don't fish much. I run my 20,000# diesel express cruiser down the lake rolling big wakes. I think it is stupid for somebody to anchor in the main channel and fish. I think they should know better than to expect to have calm conditions if they are sitting there. IT sometimes aggravates me to see themn anchored there. I want to blast by and watch them capsize. What I do, though, is I slow down to a moderate wake whenever I will be passing near these guys. It's just part of what you have to do when you share the waters. When I blast down the lake at 70 or so, I get hacked off at the prissy sailboats lumbering around in circles. I could rip straight down the middle of them as long as I don't get dangerously close. What I do, though, is bear to one shoreline and if it is populated, I will slow to a less imtimidating speed. It's just part of what you have to do when you share the waters. When I see a pack of jetskis, I always figure that they are blind and will turn and run into me. While they should use some sense, it just ain't gonna happen overnight. The waters are full of idiots. All you gotta do is sit at the boatramp and witness scads of guys who have no business at the helm of a boat. Fishermen deserve the right to fish in the waters. Cruisers deserve the right to cruise in the waters. Go-fasts deserve the right to go fast in the waters. Jetskiers deserve the right to ski in the waters. Divers deserve the right to dive in the waters. I feel that these are and should always be RIGHTS, and not privileges. If we are not careful, though, they will indeed become privileges and will then be restricted more and more until these rights/privileges are finally taken away. No different than on our roadways, except that enforcement is lacking sorely in the waters. Every jetskier needs to get superficial injuries and significant fiberglass damage from a close call from doing something stupid. I think it would make them all better and more polite riders. M |
A few years ago we a freind had his jet boat tied up to the side of our dock and we weresitting aroung talking. A couple kids on a PWC were getting closer and closer to the dock, but we thought they'ld eventually move on.
Well they didn't and freeaked when they got too close and couldn't turn away. My buddies boat was very low and they went right over the transom and onto the sun pad!!!! :eek: :eek: :mad: No damage, no injury, but a hell of a lot of cussing and yelling. We never saw those same kids in our cove again. :mad: |
In 1998 the National Transportation Safety Board criticized the basic design of all personal watercraft: “Personal watercraft have no braking mechanism. They coast to a stop, and while coasting, there is no turning ability.” Tom Ebro, president of Aquatic Risk Management in Florida, concurs. “What makes personal watercraft so ultra-dangerous is the fact that it will not steer when you suddenly have a surprise and let off the throttle.” Unlike traditional boats “jet skis’ are rudderless. And when the throttle is off, a speeding jet ski is like a car on ice. It can’t stop. It can’t turn, and the driver has no control
According to the 1999 yearly report from the California Department of Boating and Waterways: “In collisions between personal watercraft and vessels other than pwc, the pwc operator was nearly 3 times as likely to be exclusively at fault.” http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/opin/jetskis.html taken from this site above I am to a Jet ski user of 10 years and still to this day find myself letting of the gas in close quarter situations which if u let off completely is a no steer conditon, its a natural reponse cause u do it on almost anything else u drive. I have both a jet ski and boat cert |
PWC were banned from being near Fire Island, NY as of a couple of weeks ago. It is a big relief to me.
Now I won't have to sweat when one of them cuts a 90 degree turn directly in front of me. If I do end up clocking one in the head. with the pointy end of the boat....hey, he should not have been there. The offenders are nearly always kids, but some brainless adults too. Too bad this ruins PWC fun for sane adults, but the industry should have worked with gov. agencies to come up with some logical guidelines before the ban happened. It is surprising that more PWC operators have not been killed. |
I certainly hate to hear the term ban...anytime restrictions are created for one thing it seems that it eases the guidelines for restricting other things.... what's the answer ....?? I have no Idea...it is a problem though , have had several nervous moments over the yrs..
|
i can say that i have had 2 near misses with the damn things...one guy crossed the bow of my uncles 31 bullet as we were crawling through a bridge on the south shore of long island.. we all got soaked from his spray as he landed directl in front of us .. he then looked up and realized how close we were , about 6 inches away and probably $h1T himself... and the other in my own boat at about 40 mph in jones inlet... a notoriously snotty inlet.. waves were about 4-5 feet and some moron and his kid ( about 5 or 6) were unsure of the way they wanted to go.. all i saw was the top of his head then the crest of the wave then his head again ..chopped the throttles and cut the wheel ,,missed him by aq few feet......
|
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 11:40 PM. |
Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.