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Originally Posted by New Hampshire Native
80% of the problems would go away if you were required to be licensed in order to DRIVE a boat, just like a car. Remember how scared you were when the Driver's license official took you for your test on the streets to get your license. If you couldn't parallel park, etc you failed? I am simply saying if you are not going to require licensing, then you need to identify boats with SOMEONE on board that has the boater safety card. At least one person on board has some kind of idea what the rules are. Identifying the boat only just means someone passed the course even though they may not be on the boat. If you haven't got a boat registered in New Hampshire, then you need to take the test first. {snip}
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While I'm not against a boat license, I'm not sure what % of the problems it would solve, consider this.... Ideally both the present certificate training and a license, the latter presumably with an exam, accomplish the same thing; exposure to and ideally retention of the appropriate boating rules and regs. You could make the good point that examination by a person (vs a test) means the examinee would really have to learn at least some of the material. I could make the same point that the present training would accomplish the same thing if it required an examiner and on-water test (many here have opined this would be a good thing). Ideally a license carries with it some "memory"; that is repeated infractions get increasingly punished and at some point your license can be revoked (hopefully preventing you from driving). This is perhaps the only real difference I see btw the 2 approaches. Presently I don't believe the boating fine structure allows this "progressivity" nor do I know when your boating privileges get yanked (perhaps Skip can comment). Certainly the Littlefeild case shows this can happen under the present system, even if only rarely. But look at how people, presumably licensed, drive their cars. Certainly mere licensing isn't stopping the bonehead behavior on our roadways, nor does revocation always stop someone from driving the car. If you can remember how scared you were prior to your exam, try to remember how scared you were 6 months, 1 year, 10 years later. Not much I'll wager. With that in mind I say it's unsure how much more effect a boat license program would have over what NH is presently trying to accomplish. You going to have some ignorants that hopefully can be educated. You going to have some malevolents that either system only imperfectly removes from the scene and in between you've got a lot of morons who switch off their brain when they switch on the ignition. Either system requires perhaps more stick than presently used, I'm wondering where the carrot is ? Stick w/o carrot is only half the motivational story. Somehow "we" have to indoctrinate people with pride in doing the "right thing" so that they feel good when they handle situation X in a proper, dare I say professional, manner. But now I'm straying from the topic ....