Deadly collision splits Sea Ray in two

[Motoguy2158]

I had a “talk” with a guy on a packed pontoon boat about an hour ago who flew past my dock in a no wake zone with FOUR kids about 5 or 6 years old sitting on the front with their feet skimming the water.

It went poorly.

He was about the 10th boat to go by at 10-15 mph. He had never heard of a no wake zone and told me that he’d worry about is effing kids.

Nice, right?

As I sit here #11 just ripped past.

It's crazy, not only don't they know but won't take any advise or education from others. I had same discussion and you get and f off from most of them.

 

[CaptRonn]

We have seemingly tons of new boaters on our lake. All weekends look like holiday weekends. We had our fair share of uneducated or just don't give a sh!t boaters before the pandemic boating explosion. Now it's 10 times worse. More congestion, more cruisers running down the main channel on plane, more waves and much less knowledge. I'm surprised we haven't had more people killed. I see cruisers running on plane with people on the bow with their feet hanging over the sides. Bowriders on plane with people sitting on the sunpads. It's just crazy. And no one understands the right of way concepts, so you cannot rely on the the rules of the road. People pulling skiers through anchored boats, because coves are for skiing. It's been the wild west.

Here in Texas it's getting progressively worse. Holidays are an absolute no go due to the insanity that prevails on the water.

Had one of those go fast type boats (with the really, really loud V8's) coming down the entrance to Nassau Bay plowing, his bow way up in the air to the point the driver couldn't see me coming the other way. The channel into Nassau Bay is very narrow, and on every piling is a sign "Slow, No Wake". Here he comes kicking up a two foot wake and can't see me, doesn't care. I lay on the horn and as he approaches he finally comes off throttle, lowers the bow and sees me.

As he passes he gives me the one finger salute. Yep, how dare I make him slow down to get into an anchorage!

This may be my last season boating here. Due to obligations I have 3 more years here, and honestly the joy of boating just sucks due to all the obnoxious BS of fellow "boaters". The free for alls on the lake and bay are getting to be a bit too much.

 

[boatman37]

We have a few 'noisemaker' boats at our marina. One is on A dock and has to pass behind us to get in and out. I swear he goes in and out 10x a day. Last week I was on our boat on the phone and had to wait what seemed like 2 or 3 minutes to talk because you couldn't hear anything. And like I said, seems like when he is there he goes in and out every 15 minutes.

 

[Kyle R]

Boatman37 I have one of those A holes on my dock..He comes into the marina on full plane and throttles down at the last second. Then he attempts to dock his boat while eating his own wake. I also screamed at his kid for leaving the jet ski basin at 60mph a few weekends ago. Like father like son I guess. Smh.

 

[boatman37]

Boatman37 I have one of those A holes on my dock..He comes into the marina on full plane and throttles down at the last second. Then he attempts to dock his boat while eating his own wake. I also screamed at his kid for leaving the jet ski basin at 60mph a few weekends ago. Like father like son I guess. Smh.

These guys respect the no wake area but just they are so loud and the one is constantly in and out of his slip.

 

[Kyle R]

This guy is in and out all day as well. 6-7 times yesterday. The recklessness is just an added bonus.

 

[Motoguy2158]

No disrespect for law enforcement as they are far and few between on the water, but it seems more effort is spent on boarding boats to do safety checks and less time pulling them over for flagrant violations. There are defined speed limits, noise limits, wake laws and rules of the road. Ive watched as the extremely loud boats run down the river thru town making it impossible for anyone in a three block radius to have a conversation and yet they are not stopped. same goes for speed.... Not sure how we can return boating to the fun times it used to be.

 

[firecadet613]

No disrespect for law enforcement as they are far and few between on the water, but it seems more effort is spent on boarding boats to do safety checks and less time pulling them over for flagrant violations. There are defined speed limits, noise limits, wake laws and rules of the road. Ive watched as the extremely loud boats run down the river thru town making it impossible for anyone in a three block radius to have a conversation and yet they are not stopped. same goes for speed.... Not sure how we can return boating to the fun times it used to be.

Head out on Lake Michigan (or on your case, Lake Huron), away from the harbors. There is increased traffic this year, but most of it within 5 miles of a harbor. When we go out, we head straight out a few miles and are the only boat around.

 

[craigswardmtb]

Glad i'm not the only one noticing it. Here in CT its pretty bad too. So many smaller boats with new operators out there, be it fishing center consoles, or go fun cruisers/bowriders. Although a boating license/certificate is required up here, it seems people forget or don't internalize any of it. More likely they just lack general common sense. If I am on a course, and a smaller boat is on a perpendicular course to my port where we will likely collide, that smaller boat may want to consider deviating his path. Technically they are the give way vessel if coming from my port. No one seems to know that and the little boat always seems to want to gun it and cut right in front of me, making me throttle down or maneuver in a much larger and more difficult to quickly maneuver boat. Rules of the road aside, one would probably want to give way to that much larger vessel as it is a loosing battle for them if a collision were to occur. Where common sense comes in....