Trouble For You New Englanders!!
07-14-2003, 11:55 AM
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Trouble For You New Englanders!!
In light of the Littlefiled trial and that knothead that flipped the Fountain last week, it looks like people are trying to start trouble in NH on Lake Winnipausaki (dam, those indians had to be DRUNK when they named that lake!!) 
http://www.theunionleader.com/redirector.html?id=306
GILFORD — Do the increasing number of high-performance boats on Lake Winnipesaukee pose a safety problem for other boaters?
That issue was being hotly debated long before last summer’s accident in Meredith Bay in which a Bedford man was killed when his smaller boat was hit by a 36-foot-long Baja Outlaw.
But that accident gave the debate new impetus and prompted calls for restrictions on the size and horsepower of boats on the 44,000-acre lake, which on a busy weekend may have a boat in the water for every acre of water surface.
One person who would like to see attempts made to discourage larger offshore-style boats from operating on Winnipesaukee is Bob Kennington of Wolfeboro, who says as far as he’s concerned Lake Winnipesaukee, where he has boated for 50 years, now equals anarchy.
“Boats are getting too big, and fast. Boaters believe that they can cruise from Meredith to Wolfeboro, whoop it up at a restaurant, and race back after a few drinks,” says Kennington.
He says the restaurant-night boating phenomenon is relatively new, having started about 15 years ago.
And he’d like to see boats over 24 feet long charged much higher registration fees, which would be doubled and tripled for the number of engines. Some of the high-performance boats have three engines, each of which produce close to 500 horsepower.
Kennington says one inherent problem with the large high-performance boats is that the driving position is about one-third of the distance from the rear of the boat, which means a seated driver can’t see over the bow at relatively low speeds of up to 28 miles per hour. And, he points out a person who was intoxicated, might not even be able to stand up to watch over the bow.
He also says some of the larger boats are using illuminated electronic Global Positioning Satellite at night, which allows them to avoid rocky areas, but are driving “way too fast at night as a consequence.”
But New Hampshire Marine Patrol officials say the safety record of the high-performance boats doesn’t bear out claims they are more dangerous than smaller boats.
“Most boats involved in accidents are in the 18- to 24-foot range,” says Lt. Tim Dunleavy of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.
He said there have been five boat-related fatalities in New Hampshire so far this year, but none involved boat collisions. All were drownings with only one boat involved.
Dunleavy said congestion can be a problem on the lake, especially on warm weekends. But there is no precise estimate of how many of New Hampshire’s 110,000 registered boats may be on Lake Winnipesaukee at any one time.
He said many of the boats using New Hampshire lakes are registered in other states and many other boats, especially personal watercraft, may be trailered in for just a weekend of recreation.
State Sen. Carl Johnson, R-Meredith, says there has been a rapid increase in the number of boat registrations in New Hampshire in the last few years and says he’d like to see the Legislature look more closely at some proposed changes.
The lake has no speed limit and the only restraint on speed is a regulation that requires boats to slow to headway speed, about six miles per hour, when passing within 150 feet of another boat.
Scott Hughes of Haverhill, Mass., who owns a cottage in Alton and has been boating on Lake Winnipesaukee for 40 years, says that while he was out on Winnipesaukee Saturday with his 24-foot pontoon with seven family members on board he was cut off by a huge cruiser which was throwing up a four-foot high wake and saw many performance boats operating a full throttle.
“One high-performance boat came within 20 yards of us and then it came within 10 feet of a jet skier. There’s no courtesy out there any more and the attitude seems to be that ‘I’ve got a bigger boat than you so I don’t care,’” says Hughes.
He said he’d like to see a speed limit on the lake on busy weekends that could be put into effect by having the Marine Patrol activate remote beacons which would flash and let boaters know they have to throttle down.
Johnson says he thinks a speed limit at least deserves some study. “Some of the boats are going 70 to 80 miles per hour out there. But the lake is like a highway and we have speed limits to protect people on highways. Maybe we should think about a speed limit on the lake,” says Johnson.
He said a night-time speed limit bill introduced by Rep. Paul Hatch, R-Wolfeboro, never made it out of committee in the last legislative session and attributes the defeat of many proposed boating regulation changes to a lack of knowledge on the part of the legislative majority from southern New Hampshire about the boating problems in the Lakes Region.
Johnson plans to reintroduce a bill that would help provide information about out-of-state boats using New Hampshire waters by requiring an environmental impact sticker, priced at two or three dollars, for out-of-state boats.
“We’d get a handle on how many boats are coming here. New Hampshire seems very popular with out-of-state boaters, perhaps because we have the fewest restrictions of any state around us. We need some common sense regulations, along with more boater education, in order to make things safer,” says Johnson.
Dana Badger of Goodhue and Hawkins in Wolfeboro, who has been boating on Lake Winnipesaukee for 45 years, says that it’s not the size of the boats that is the problem. “It’s the boat drivers. Many don’t know the boating laws at all, which is why I think the state’s on the right track with mandatory boater education.
And he says that the number of boaters on the lake has shot up sharply since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “People are staying home. They’re not taking overseas vacations. So they’re buying boats and staying right here.”
He said personal watercraft, smaller jet ski-style boats which can go into shallow water where propeller driven boats can’t venture, pose a particular problem, especially with many transient users.
“They use public ramps to launch and don’t have a place to stop and rest. So many of them end up closer to the swimming areas and that always creates an uproar from the mothers on the beaches who see them close to the swim rafts,” says Badger.
Badger doesn’t favor restrictions on boat size but he’d like to see stepped-up enforcement of boating laws. “The Marine Patrol does a great job with the resources that they have. But they need more people, more boats and more money. We don’t need new laws. Just enforce the ones we’ve got. The Marine Patrol is underfunded as far as I’m concerned.”
http://www.theunionleader.com/redirector.html?id=306
GILFORD — Do the increasing number of high-performance boats on Lake Winnipesaukee pose a safety problem for other boaters?
That issue was being hotly debated long before last summer’s accident in Meredith Bay in which a Bedford man was killed when his smaller boat was hit by a 36-foot-long Baja Outlaw.
But that accident gave the debate new impetus and prompted calls for restrictions on the size and horsepower of boats on the 44,000-acre lake, which on a busy weekend may have a boat in the water for every acre of water surface.
One person who would like to see attempts made to discourage larger offshore-style boats from operating on Winnipesaukee is Bob Kennington of Wolfeboro, who says as far as he’s concerned Lake Winnipesaukee, where he has boated for 50 years, now equals anarchy.
“Boats are getting too big, and fast. Boaters believe that they can cruise from Meredith to Wolfeboro, whoop it up at a restaurant, and race back after a few drinks,” says Kennington.
He says the restaurant-night boating phenomenon is relatively new, having started about 15 years ago.
And he’d like to see boats over 24 feet long charged much higher registration fees, which would be doubled and tripled for the number of engines. Some of the high-performance boats have three engines, each of which produce close to 500 horsepower.
Kennington says one inherent problem with the large high-performance boats is that the driving position is about one-third of the distance from the rear of the boat, which means a seated driver can’t see over the bow at relatively low speeds of up to 28 miles per hour. And, he points out a person who was intoxicated, might not even be able to stand up to watch over the bow.
He also says some of the larger boats are using illuminated electronic Global Positioning Satellite at night, which allows them to avoid rocky areas, but are driving “way too fast at night as a consequence.”
But New Hampshire Marine Patrol officials say the safety record of the high-performance boats doesn’t bear out claims they are more dangerous than smaller boats.
“Most boats involved in accidents are in the 18- to 24-foot range,” says Lt. Tim Dunleavy of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.
He said there have been five boat-related fatalities in New Hampshire so far this year, but none involved boat collisions. All were drownings with only one boat involved.
Dunleavy said congestion can be a problem on the lake, especially on warm weekends. But there is no precise estimate of how many of New Hampshire’s 110,000 registered boats may be on Lake Winnipesaukee at any one time.
He said many of the boats using New Hampshire lakes are registered in other states and many other boats, especially personal watercraft, may be trailered in for just a weekend of recreation.
State Sen. Carl Johnson, R-Meredith, says there has been a rapid increase in the number of boat registrations in New Hampshire in the last few years and says he’d like to see the Legislature look more closely at some proposed changes.
The lake has no speed limit and the only restraint on speed is a regulation that requires boats to slow to headway speed, about six miles per hour, when passing within 150 feet of another boat.
Scott Hughes of Haverhill, Mass., who owns a cottage in Alton and has been boating on Lake Winnipesaukee for 40 years, says that while he was out on Winnipesaukee Saturday with his 24-foot pontoon with seven family members on board he was cut off by a huge cruiser which was throwing up a four-foot high wake and saw many performance boats operating a full throttle.
“One high-performance boat came within 20 yards of us and then it came within 10 feet of a jet skier. There’s no courtesy out there any more and the attitude seems to be that ‘I’ve got a bigger boat than you so I don’t care,’” says Hughes.
He said he’d like to see a speed limit on the lake on busy weekends that could be put into effect by having the Marine Patrol activate remote beacons which would flash and let boaters know they have to throttle down.
Johnson says he thinks a speed limit at least deserves some study. “Some of the boats are going 70 to 80 miles per hour out there. But the lake is like a highway and we have speed limits to protect people on highways. Maybe we should think about a speed limit on the lake,” says Johnson.
He said a night-time speed limit bill introduced by Rep. Paul Hatch, R-Wolfeboro, never made it out of committee in the last legislative session and attributes the defeat of many proposed boating regulation changes to a lack of knowledge on the part of the legislative majority from southern New Hampshire about the boating problems in the Lakes Region.
Johnson plans to reintroduce a bill that would help provide information about out-of-state boats using New Hampshire waters by requiring an environmental impact sticker, priced at two or three dollars, for out-of-state boats.
“We’d get a handle on how many boats are coming here. New Hampshire seems very popular with out-of-state boaters, perhaps because we have the fewest restrictions of any state around us. We need some common sense regulations, along with more boater education, in order to make things safer,” says Johnson.
Dana Badger of Goodhue and Hawkins in Wolfeboro, who has been boating on Lake Winnipesaukee for 45 years, says that it’s not the size of the boats that is the problem. “It’s the boat drivers. Many don’t know the boating laws at all, which is why I think the state’s on the right track with mandatory boater education.
And he says that the number of boaters on the lake has shot up sharply since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “People are staying home. They’re not taking overseas vacations. So they’re buying boats and staying right here.”
He said personal watercraft, smaller jet ski-style boats which can go into shallow water where propeller driven boats can’t venture, pose a particular problem, especially with many transient users.
“They use public ramps to launch and don’t have a place to stop and rest. So many of them end up closer to the swimming areas and that always creates an uproar from the mothers on the beaches who see them close to the swim rafts,” says Badger.
Badger doesn’t favor restrictions on boat size but he’d like to see stepped-up enforcement of boating laws. “The Marine Patrol does a great job with the resources that they have. But they need more people, more boats and more money. We don’t need new laws. Just enforce the ones we’ve got. The Marine Patrol is underfunded as far as I’m concerned.”
Platinum Member
07-14-2003, 02:30 PM
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In my Day...we had to strap our boats on oak logs and haul em behind smelly oxen for seven days just to get the water that was polluted from the run off from the lumber mills and slaughter houses. Those so called power boats were only for the Rockerfellers, we had to paddle around all day till our hands bled just so we could tow my daddy around on his raft or else get a whooping.... and we liked it!
Bob Kennington
Bob Kennington
07-14-2003, 02:48 PM
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You guys better to start and rally against this movement, or you will be in no wake zones and limited speed soon. If noone speaks up these jerks usually get their way.
And by the way they have nothing better to do with their time anyway.
And by the way they have nothing better to do with their time anyway.
07-14-2003, 05:32 PM
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Kennington says one inherent problem with the large high-performance boats is that the driving position is about one-third of the distance from the rear of the boat, which means a seated driver can’t see over the bow at relatively low speeds of up to 28 miles per hour. And, he points out a person who was intoxicated, might not even be able to stand up to watch over the bow.
07-14-2003, 05:53 PM
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But New Hampshire Marine Patrol officials say the safety record of the high-performance boats doesn’t bear out claims they are more dangerous than smaller boats.
“Most boats involved in accidents are in the 18- to 24-foot range,” says Lt. Tim Dunleavy of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.
Dana Badger of Goodhue and Hawkins in Wolfeboro, who has been boating on Lake Winnipesaukee for 45 years, says that it’s not the size of the boats that is the problem. “It’s the boat drivers. Many don’t know the boating laws at all, which is why I think the state’s on the right track with mandatory boater education.
Badger doesn’t favor restrictions on boat size but he’d like to see stepped-up enforcement of boating laws. “The Marine Patrol does a great job with the resources that they have. But they need more people, more boats and more money. We don’t need new laws. Just enforce the ones we’ve got. The Marine Patrol is underfunded as far as I’m concerned.
He said there have been five boat-related fatalities in New Hampshire so far this year, but none involved boat collisions. All were drownings with only one boat involved.
2 people that have their heads out
“Most boats involved in accidents are in the 18- to 24-foot range,” says Lt. Tim Dunleavy of the New Hampshire Marine Patrol.
Dana Badger of Goodhue and Hawkins in Wolfeboro, who has been boating on Lake Winnipesaukee for 45 years, says that it’s not the size of the boats that is the problem. “It’s the boat drivers. Many don’t know the boating laws at all, which is why I think the state’s on the right track with mandatory boater education.
Badger doesn’t favor restrictions on boat size but he’d like to see stepped-up enforcement of boating laws. “The Marine Patrol does a great job with the resources that they have. But they need more people, more boats and more money. We don’t need new laws. Just enforce the ones we’ve got. The Marine Patrol is underfunded as far as I’m concerned.
He said there have been five boat-related fatalities in New Hampshire so far this year, but none involved boat collisions. All were drownings with only one boat involved.
2 people that have their heads out
