I had a guy (and his whole crew) flip me the bird on Lake Muskoka recently for not changing speed/course. This took place in open water in the middle of the afternoon and he approached from the rear quarter of my port side at easily twice the speed I was doing. This isn't an isolated case, as you can see this stuff all the time. It makes me question if this program is doing anything at all after 10 years.

I like the concept . But it needs work .
The big problem I have with the program is being able to do the test online with all your Buddies coaching you with the correct answers . I know a lot of people will argue this but recurrent training in my opinion should be mandatory for Boats , cars and motorcycles .

Paul

You can have all the cards you want the bottom line is YOU JUST CAN'T FIX STUPID !!!!!

AGREED!!!!!! How many people have you seen [or know?] who have had drivers licenese for 20+ years that are STILL horrible drivers? Its WAY to easy to have someone else write the test for you online [I KNOW its been done]

The only drawback with further restrictions [ie: Gov't involvement] is the funding will have to come from "somewhere", in other words, your operator card will cost $500, instead of $50 and in the end, the money will do NOTHING to make boating and boaters safer!

Michael

Bingo. In addition, if you could in fact fix stupid it sure as hell won't be government doing it.

Just observe people's behavior on the roads despite that 99% of the idiot general population has a driver's license.

what kind of boat was it Phil????

1bagger makes a good point. Re-qualifying on an ongoing basis would go a long way towards having this information actually sink in.

No Doug, it wasn't me

Phil, if you stick your operators card into a deck, you'll have 3 jokers.

The whole system is that much of a joke really. No training needed, just a little book and a computer or worse, someone else doing the test. It was purely a tax grab from day one. Thats obvious.

I sat down at the Toronto boat show, no studying, completly cold, one wrong

no sean I thought it might be a 32 F I know that hangs up there...

I actually never even took the test. I just mailed in a photo copy of a letter from the Harbour Commisioner stating that I had passed my harbour licence exam and the CG mailed me out my card.

If the Operators Card was granted after the same type of test as the Harbour Licence, I would feel much better about the program.
Sure, it costs 15 bucks a year for a H.L. renewal but whats 15 bucks?

To pass that test, first is a written and multiple choice exam ( 100 questions which must be completed in two hours ) followed by an in boat test with a Metro water cop riding along and throwing different scenarios at you like man over board etc.

Pass both tests, get a licence. Thats the way the Operators card should be administered IMHO.