[parrothead]

I don't understand this law either. There are boats of all sizes with through hull exhaust on the lake. Now given the opportunity to switch to "quieter" mode when coming into shore, or at night seems to me like it would be a good thing. Some boats come from the factory with these switches as standard equipment and sold to consumers in NH where it is illegal. Removing the switch to make your boat "legal" can be expensive, and if caught with the switch you can be fined as well. Meanwhile there are boats with through hull exhaust only that get to go on their merry way. And these boats definately excede the 82 db level at 50 feet, but there is no way to easily modify them to through prop, so they are not hassled. My father and I got stopped while going headway speed by a Marine Patrol boat. Now the boat is a Sea Ray bowrider that came from the factory with the switch. When the officer stopped us he said that he could tell the boat exceded the 82 db level by listening to it. As we were sitting there with the officer two offshores came by with the through hull exhausts, that were much louder than our boat. These two boats went into Meredith bay floated around for a few minutes and then came back out. By that time the MP officer was done with us and had moved back to floating near the no wake sign in front of the town docks. The offshores came by the MP boat at headway speed and then went up on plane and headed down the bay. The MP boat never moved, my Dad and I waited there for a few minutes to see what would happen. We couldn't understand why the MP offecer would pick us over the these other obviously louder boats. We got off with a warning about the switch and the marina disconnected the switch at no charge, and then my Dad had to go and have the decible level of the boat checked, or he would have been fined. So why if the MP is enforcing the decible levels, do they seem to do it selectively? And was the stop more about a suspicion that we had the switch than the decible level? If that is the case then this law seems ridiculous.