doing an paper for school, argument paper. think of doing it on poker run safety, now before anyone gets their depends in a bunch, it is just thinking, it's not a proposal, it's not pointing fingers..its just thinking.
Anyways with accidents in the last couple years, and the poker run is not a race deal, my thesis is that if boats entering a PR were capable of speeds in excess of 100 mph, they be required by the various PR associations to provide proof of completion of a performance boat school, as well as wear helmets and jackets. my thought here is that whether your an inexperienced person with a pocket full of dollars to buy a fast boat, or someone with 50 years experience, education is never a bad thing. I couple that with the fact that individual insurance goes down with one of these classes, would it not also positivly impact promoter ins for the PR? could it and what likely hood would it have on prevention of future incidents?
Also, any clues as to where to find information, statistics on the past accidents and the criteria the ins companies use when calculating what if any discounts are giving for completeing these schools??

call a major insurer like Sy or Bob at worldwide 4 some of that info!! good luck schoolboy!!!!

So guys like Bob Teague or John Tomleson would have to take a safety course before their next PR?

I think you need to focus more on your audience.

Why not do it on speed limits? Simple and easy to understand. Pretend your teacher is not a performance boat enthusiast. Assuming you have detail information she/he will most likely get lost in all the facts and jargon. Lots of stuff out there on speed limits, which would make your research a lot easier to do and easier to read.

Or leave poker runs out of it completely. It seems most poker runs are pretty safe, especially compared to regular recreational boating. Most of the guys running in PRs are pretty experienced. It's the weekend boater, drinking, rental PWCs, etc that cause more accidents. Think about the number of PRs and boats involved throughout the nation and how few incidents there really are. Then look at any holiday weekend or summer time weekends on waterways through the country and compare number of incidents. Besides, your teacher probably won't have any idea what a poker run is.

If you want to have a study how about pros and cons of operators licenses for boats and PWCs?

I agree with everything being said, but I chose this for a couple reasons, it focuses on education, specific incidents are indentifiable, ,and yes given any spectrum there will be extremes at either end. I realize that their are a few people ( as you mentioned) that could write the performance school book, but when looking at the whole and not the individual i.e: if Phelpps decided he wanted to stop swimming and race a canopy boat, would he somehow become exempt from the dunker or the swim test? sure there are thinks like rentals, weekend boaters etc that cause more accidents, but that is overly broad for the assignment. we were instructed to choose a topic where research would be challanging, that has not been addresed at length.

i'd drop out of school.

there should be a requirement for boaters who buy boats that go over 120 mph. if you can prove that you are not an idiot, then you're fine, otherwise you have to go through a boat school.

i was writing an essay a couple weeks ago for a tourism class, and i wanted to discuss the environmental and economic impact of boaters on a given area during a social event (power boating poker run or sailing regatta). i looked online, in scholarly journals and at the library and the information just isn't there. good luck with your essay, seems like you picked an interesting topic! post it when your done, id like to give it a read!

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i hate the idea of requiring a boating course to enter a poker run

i don't even like the fact that someone would even suggest that/post that on a forum , some nerd/doofist politician hears that and next thing you know we have a mandatory boating course forced on us

i have been driving jetskis/waverunners (pwc's) since 1991 and have rode over 1000 hrs (plus i have put well over 1000 hrs driving a bunch of boats), then next thing you know im sitting in a classroom last year taking my mandatory safe boating course that is now forced on anyone who rides a pwc in NY

if you are scared of your own shadow and feel the need to be protected from all the dangers of life , please lock yourself in a room and leave the poker runs and performance boating to those who choose to do it


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a little testy are we???