Even the "experienced" need to remember the rules
 

So, headed back today from Ragged to dock at Shep Brown's. Traveling from the canal b/t Mark and Timber, I gave myself plenty of room to turn in and head north b/t Bear and Meredith neck. Traveling at a pretty good clip, but nothing outrageous.

Then, all of a sudden, an older couple that probably has many years of enjoying the lake cut directly in front of my turn, within 20' of the SE marker and about 100' of me, and crossed my intended path to head to Cattle Landing.

I was forced to slow down considerably so that I didn't run them over. My boat is 27', doesn't go very fast, and doesn't slow down that quickly.

Closest I've ever come to an accident, and they certainly appeared "experienced".

So, to all those who have issues w/ "new" captains, it would appear that it's not only the "new" ones that I have to watch out for...

People love to point the finger at the novice captains... and while certainly they cause a number of problems... If someone claims to be the perfect captain, I wouldn't believe them.... We are after all human.... it is human nature to make mistakes.

Aged, Aging, or Ageism?
 

Welcome to the forum.

I suspect that the lake is suffering with "certification". Some may not know that a certificate is required, some may have a certificate from a state that has minimal laws and haven't yet been exposed to New Hampshire's unique boating regulations and buoy system. :eek2: Some are boating "buzzed" with alcohol, and more lately, "legal marijuana", or like Justin Bieber both. :eek: (British newspapers have a more extensive exposé on Justin's US adventure—having friends block-off a residential street to drag-race a Ferrari while drunk).

Some are under-aged, yet operating a Jet-Ski: one, a neighbor, allowed his 12-year-old son to race around—and after four years of this—is now "legal". Last weekend, a second unknown under-aged boy was racing back and forth, and doing those "circles". :rolleye1: I mention "under-aged" because they've both been racing around within ¼-mile of an under-aged Jet-Ski fatality—that I could have witnessed by looking up from my computer! :eek:

As for sober aged or aging boaters, I can't account for it—except perhaps, a sense of entitlement that appears to be growing. :confused:

"Entitlement" is my suspicion.

While I respect the wisdom that experience affords, we can't let that "wisdom" push safety to the back seat...

So we've moved on to judging someone's amount of boating experience based off their hair color...?

Did it ever occur to you that they could have indeed been older people who are new boaters?

That's why I put "experienced" in quotes.

Certainly possible that they were new boaters, but their destination was the docks at Cattle Landing. Given that there was only 2 people on the boat, I made an assumption that they were "islanders", which lends me to think that they are probably seasoned boaters.

I could be wrong, but I'm betting that I'm not...