The way we were taught was if you see their green (stb) light, they are giving you the "green light" to proceed as a right of way, if you see their port/red light, you have to give way as the overtaking vessel... lake lice was in the wrong

I say jet ski up here they are like green flys shut down many times not to hit one!

I stay as far away as I can from the lake rats. They're too unpredictable. Kinda like running up on deer next to the highway.

Boats wins this one, but isn't there another rule that says you must stay at least 50' away from other watercraft when on-plane?

You are correct, technically and by law, It would be boats fault if jet ski was on starboard side. But, in a crowded, busy inlet you shouldn’t be cutting across it. Stay with flow of traffic till clear of inlet and in more open water. Still need your head on a swivel before making turns. Jet skis are always the smaller more maneuverable vessel. They should always stand down, IMO. To cut across that inlet at probably a 60-70degree angle is stupid and wrong. Regardless of what rule book says. Common sense should be used. Seems it’s used less and less. If everyone would do that, everyone would stay safe also.

Should be common sense. Just like the road. Red means stop, green means go. I wish more boaters knew this.

Did that boat stop or come back to see if they were hurt?

I believe the dude on the ski flipped the boat captain a thumbs up. All good.

sure it was a thumb and not some other finger?

The rules are made simple so that they can be applied in ANY situation without exception. Always yield to vessels on your starboard side. If we start adding caveats like 'smaller more maneuverable vessel must give way' things get complicated and in some cases impossible to determine in the time you have to make a decision.. Also we cant introduce anything about 'being farther out in open sea' as that would not be easy to measure or determine either.

Dont get me wrong, pwc are a pain in the ass. THey arent paying attention 1/2 of the time. I have almost hit several who were approaching from my port side who were busy jumping wakes and popped our of nowhere.

We ran from Camden to Dick's, to The Cave and Niangua, to The Damn and to Coconut's and back to Camden. All before 10 am on the Sat of the 4th. We damn near killed at least two azzhats on WRs just being dumb. In the Coconuts arm we literally came damn near a complete stop for one that just cut right across our bow and then SLOWED down to a crawl after we had to avoid his buddy that curt us off right before that. Then he gave us the finger. We have it all on video. He's lucky I had the lanyard on or I might've had to go off the back with The People's Elbow.

I cannot believe at least 3-4 don't die at LOTO every weekend.