Why, The Importance Of Basic Boater Courses?

[captchas]

Basic boater courses are VERY important to persons that never owned or operated a boat before...Remember it only takes money to buy a boat , No insurance is required and no instruction necessary except to "Show me where the key goes"... 35 years with the USCGA and helping with public education classes , listening to those folks that bought a boat first and told of the trial and errors they faced with the accidents, injuries and damage caused by not knowing what to do or when to do it!
I don't care if it is a USPS ,USCGA, or any Bona -fide course
I believe it should be Mandatory before anybody is allowed to operate any thing larger then a peddle boat!
I am quite sure you will all agree with what I am saying ...
How many times have you come across boaters who haven't a clue about safety, children bow riding in speeding boats ,passing flank speed in no wake zones, overtaking and passing under bridges with no signals, not understanding a danger signal of 5 blasts of a horn, not knowing what buoys are for. holding fuel hoses away from the fill pipe ,leaving cabins open when fueling..It goes on and on.
That's why boating classes SHOULD BE MANDITORY.
These folks pose a danger to ALL boaters and to people who use our waters ,swimmers and divers etc..

 

[L Hall]

For the life of me, I just can't understand why some folks seem to think that a "law" is going to make things better. Someone on the Autopilot thread said that connecting a GPS to an autopilot should be "against the law." Yet, there already is a law requiring a proper lookout. But it is not enforced - not until there is an accident. There's a law requiring teenagers to take a safety course prior to operating a PWC in New Jersey. We know from a previous post that there's a dead teenaged girl who ignored the law. Laws don't work - enforcement does. Florida passed a bunch of education requirements back around 2000 when the number of boating fatalities were 46. Last year, there were 80 boating fatalities, almost twice as many. Consequences, not laws, are what will prevent accidents. Until there is adequate enforcement, nothing will change.

Even with the states that do require safety courses, most accept any of the NASBLAH approved 50 questions on line tests that any fourth grader could pass. People need to accept the responsibility that comes with owning a boat and be prepared to suffer the consequences if they don't.

 

[L Hall]

Wen, up here there is no requirement for firearms training. Yet, We have one of the lowest crime rates in the country along with the fewest firearm deaths. Operating a boat is not neurosurgery. It requires that a boat owner accept the responsibility for learning how to operate it and learning the rules and laws that govern the activity. That is not the government's job, it's the boat owner's job. If he fails to learn the laws and rules, he should be rewarded with something like a $1,000 fine and a revocation of his boat registration. The problem is that the water police hand out warnings, if they are around at all. The reason that DWI fatalities are down in this country is because of the fact that the consequences are so severe, not because folks had an epiphany all of a sudden.

 

[L Hall]

What I don't understand is all the lost revenue. With towns and cities all over the country screaming about a lack of revenue and wanting to raise taxes, here's a huge untapped source of revenue. If we assume a cop costs $300 a day and a fine for excessive speed was $500, the cop should be able to generate about $5,000 a day - more if he can write fast. Between PFDs on kids, no wake violations, reckless operation, there's a goldmine out there.

 

[L Hall]

Mike, the point is that it's not the Coast Guard's job to educate anyone, except their own people. The CG is primarily an enforcement agency. The local and state water police are certainly enforcement agencies. I had a mommy. I don't want another one. I'd bet dollars to potato chips that the majority of boaters violate the law because they think they can get away with it rather than through ignorance. Most of us do it on the highway. If the speed limit is 65, we go 70 or slightly more because we think we are within the "acceptable variations" and won't be stopped. I'll do eighty if I can get in the middle of a group of five or six cars going that fast. This has nothing to do with education. It has everything to do with human nature. I know full well what the speed limit is. There's not a driver out there that doesn't know what turn signals are for. Until the water police start handing out tickets in bulk, nothing will change, no matter how many laws get put on the books. If a few no wake and reckless operation violators get prosecuted, the word will quickly spread and folks will be more careful. If a violator is one of the few who doesn't know what no wake means, it's not the government's job to teach him - it's the government's job to enforce the law.

 

[L Hall]

Wen, first of all, operating a boat is not surgery. Training is not required to drive an ATV, a snowmobile, a dirt bike, or even an experimental plane. I find it inconceivable that people prefer having the government in their pockets and in their daily activities rather than accepting the responsibility for their own education. Congress, back in 1983, exercised a little wisdom and decided that the government shouldn't have to spend money to rescue boaters who didn't maintain their engines or ran out of fuel if there was a commercial service available.

Secondly, I don't understand your comment, "And while I agree that our government doesn't need to be in the training business, it certainly does have the responsibility of being in the safety enforcement business, where necessary."

That makes my point. They do need to be in the enforcement business. There are laws being broken offshore day in and day out with few consequences. The water police should not be pulling someone over and saying, "Golly Gee, Sir, did you realize that you were going sixty weaving around anchored boats with people swimming? Did you know your kids are supposed to have PFDs on? I'm going to have to give you a warning. If you get 50 warnings in the next week, we'll have to call your wife." They need to stop the guy and write him a ticket with a $500 fine attached. If he does that three times a day, he'll cover his own costs and generate enough revenue to hire another water cop. However, none of that would be necessary if people would only accept the responsibility for their own education and training, as most do here.

And I agree that CG AUX courses do save lives, as do the Power Squadron courses, despite the fact that both organizations have taken their comprehensive courses and created reader's digest versions of them. But none of the states that have mandatory training requirements require either course. They accept any of the NASBLAH approved on line courses, with the sole exceptions of New Jersey and New Hampshire. Here's an example from the BoatUS course:

Question ID: Rules 5
Make sure you pick the BEST answer!

You are the stand-on vessel in an overtaking situation. This means:

A. You should speed up to get away from the overtaking vessel.
B. You should sound one blast on your horn and turn to the right.
C. You should sound the danger signal.
D. You are about to be passed by another boat.
E. That something is wrong. Neither boat is the stand-on vessel in an overtaking situation.

The correct answer is D - with the comment that you are the stand on vessel and should maintain course and speed. Of course, this contradicts an article they wrote not long ago. But the course is filled with stupid questions like this one. Any fourth grader could learn enough to past the test in a few hours, forgetting what they learned just as quickly. In my opinion, the courses are counter productive because, once the certificate is issued, the boater thinks he or she actually knows something.