Here is a letter that appeared in today's Asbury Park Press (NJ) www.app.com :

sorry for the length.

Retrial would be worth pursuing

It seems pretty obvious to most experienced boaters that Barry Flowers was not at the helm of his boat when it collided with a fishing boat, leaving three dead and another injured. His excuse about looking for the computer chips was dreamed up only a few weeks before the trial. Even though he claims he answered only the direct questions of the police initially because of his lawyer's advice, any reasonable person would have volunteered the reason for the crash without even having been asked.

The major mistake of the prosecution is to agree to the plea bargain. The prosecution had nothing to lose by a retrial. If Flowers were acquitted, he would go free. However, the 180-day sentence he's getting is almost the same as going free. If he were convicted, he would get his just punishment and the motor boating community would be put on notice about the penalty of being reckless.

Every weekend, I am boating on Barnegat Bay. Those riding in their "cigarette" boats are going to kill people out there, too. It is just a matter of time. How the state can allow these obnoxious machines with no mufflers to operate in the bay is dangerous and an environmental disaster to humans as well as wildlife. Maybe the Department of Environmental Protection should start looking out for the welfare of us humans, as well as that of migrating birds.

Ed King
POINT PLEASANT

The thing that gets me is that the accident that they were talking about involved a 60' Viking on the open sea, crusing with no one at the helm or on lookout!!! But its those damn cigarette boats that get his goat. This viking killed 3 men in a 20' grady, and ran a 4th through its bronze blenders cutting him up pretty badly, but lets not forget to trash the performance boating crowd. WTF???? I don't even own a fast boat (yet ) but **** like this pisses me off.

cease venting now. back to work.......

Mr. King is obviously a tree-hugging snail boter!

i oppse sail boats becasue thier large sails obstruct my view of the the open sea. Those d**kheads in thier slowmoving OBNOXIOUS view destroying sailbaots are going to kill someone someday. What would happen if say thier were children playing on a waverunner and a thier was asailboat between me and teh sailboat? Well withetht sail in eth way I woudl never see them. Additionally they could "tack" unexpectredly and force me directly into the children!!!!





See we can make insane stuff up too.

Id love to find out who this guy is and date his daughter

You should be so lucky. Heard she's a real FOX 5'8" 110 lbs , long blonde hair , nice hQQters , Even heard the drapes match the carpet if you know what I mean
Naaa, just kidding