TopSpin80

has anyone here? ever hit one in a boat. I have hit a few things floating in the water in the past and wouldn't recomment it. I hit a waterlogged telephone pole with a 13 foot boston whaler, and the motor kicked up not hurting anything. and I have hit a water logged 4x8 sheet of plywood at about 60 mph in a 27' excalibur, it dinged the prop up a little ssm#3 was not damaged. Anyone with a performance boat and a bravo drive would have destroyed the drive in both of my situations and a 800+++ pound manatee would feel like hitting a rock. With performance prop costs I think we can say that no one in an offshore boat is hitting any manatees on purpose, and if they did hit one the boat either sunk on the spot or the transom is in a fibreglass shop getting redone after being almost ripped off.

the environmentalist stuff is a bunch of BS

Ernie

pam_k

I lived in South Florida in the mid 1980's and remember seeing a few near the boat ramps where you were idling. I personally never knew of any boater hitting one. Love the sectioned off manatee Cig Daze - that's hilarious!

fund razor

Maybe if they were indignant, people wouldn't love them so.
Nobody likes a manatee with a bad attitude.

The lady trying to save them is probably not indigenous either.

fund razor

Thanks Nick.

I didn't know manatees were so full of good meat. Now I can stop ordering baby seal.

CigDaze

fund razor

Lmao!!!

tommymonza

Almost ran over one on a waverunner in some shallow back waters, but they move to fast.They can get up and haul ass if they have to.

tiufb

I've been boating in Florida since 1968, most of it in high manatee population areas, and have never hit one. The one thing the mantee people don't bother to tell you is, the reason more are dying, is that their population has increased significantly. Hmmmm

PatriYacht

It sound like the enviornmentalist in the article isn't really sure of anything. He says "if" a lot. Well it stands to reason, if the population of manatees is going up, more will get hit. However, the wackos will just use that point to demand more regulations.

Dangerous Dave

I've seen manatees swiming along side of me when idling out to Tampa Bay but if you get too close to them they dissappear. They always stay close to shore too, I've never seen on in open water. What is the psycho manatee club's motivation? If it's money, how do they benefit from no wake zones?