SR-24

With the recent deaths this year and all the accidents, do you think there will be speed limits even though hard to enforce? What about making life jackets mandatory on certain or all waters? Is there anyway they could ever enforce maximum horsepower ratings for certain length boats? I certainly hope none of this ever happens, but I can see it.

THRILLSEEKER

My Guess.... Well the government someday will probably try to make more laws on speed limits and boater education because there is no way that they can thell what kind of hp is under your hatch. What sucks is that the media is publishing all kinds of bullsh!t about how theese boats are unsafe for their intended use
and all kinds of other crap that is filling the public's heads with a bad immage of who we are and what we enjoy. And once the general public starts b!tching then laws will get passed to ruin our fun. Thats my 2 cents for what its worth.

CigDaze

The number of incidents are not atypical for this time of year especially for holidays...

I think that regulation is inevitable, however, it will most likely be for the wrong reasons($$$).

Still, you look at the numbers and you realize that there are very little boating accidents and deaths compared to the number of registered boats and the frequency of use...It is certainly many orders of magnitude lower than automobiles.

Someone correct me, but I think the number of deaths last year was in the hundreds. The majority of those were due to alcohol and the second large majority was drowning(while not underway) and third was carbon monoxide...not to mention PWC's!

Only a handful were due to speed alone.

THRILLSEEKER

No Doubt man, but the media dosent blow automobile accidents way out of porportion like they do w/boats so hardly anybody knows the real statistics on boating fatalities.

CigDaze

Right on thrillseeker,
That's their entire premise...When something uncommon happens, they sensationalize it.

bschoe

This is the Coast Guard site for boating fatalities and accidents. Yes its dated and has error from state reporting criteria.

http://www.uscgboating.org/saf/saf_yrdeathgraph.asp

The state boating law administrators have better info but still not accurate. Puerto Rico for example reports no fatalities when I recall at least 3 from recreational boats.
http://www.nasbla.org/pdf/Fatalities%202001.pdf

www.nasbla.org/

What we don't need is more government regulation, and thats coming from me who's job it is to enforce it.

Brad

Iggy

The Coast Guard forced a maximum speed (60 mph) for PWC's about two years ago. Prior to then the manufacturers had a speed war going and it was getting out of hand. Yamaha had a protoype that hit 80 mph! Picture going 80 on a 10 ft hull.
Some of our area lakes already have speed limits posted and enforced. One lake has a posted limit of 40 mph.
So, yeah, I can see it coming. Or some form of regulation, maybe a required course/license in high performance boat handling. Possibly going further and specializing operator certification on cat type hulls vs V-hulls.
Who knows.

THRILLSEEKER

the f#cking government pi$$es me off always making new laws to ruin our fun and put more money in their pocket. Dont get me wrong I realize that laws are their for our safety but they get passed for all the wrong reasons. OOOOOHHHH! makes me want to choke somebody!!!

Jana

There may be more speed limits in the future. After several deaths in recent years, there is now a "minimum speed to plane" limit in effect at night on Lake Conroe near me.

BTJ88

IMHO I don't believe that the gov't makes laws just to protect us. (although that may be the motives of some lefties ). The majority of the protection type laws stem from financial reasons. Meaning - skyrocketing insurance cost to cover the damage done by the few reckless people out there. Although I am opposed to gov't control in our lives I don't want to be stuck with the bill for the actions of idiots.

My $.02