[ApS]

Mee-n-Mac: There seems to be a contingent of people who are afraid to boat on the lake.

ApS: Include me. Half of our boats are moldering on shore because nobody likes "going out" any more.

Mee-n-Mac: What exactly is at the root of this I can't say.

ApS: I can: Too many boats -- combined with alcohol + tonnage + Mass. + velocity.

Look at your lake photos from 20 years ago:
All the photos I have from July 1986 show zero (0) boats in the background. (At the very same location).

Today, we have Anarchy. You'll recall that I wrote a letter to the Granite State News with Winnipesaukee is Anarchy in its title. It was published just three days before Littlefield fled the scene of his fatality-collision.

Do you also recall that the Littlefield hit-and-run occurred just 10 days after this forum had this long "Marine Patrol...Please Help Us!" thread?

Everyone could see that something was clearly going wrong with Lake Winnipesaukee's 2002 speedboat environment. And it's not improving with age: Boaters are staying home.
http://www.winnipesaukee.com/oldforu...mes;read=42566

Mee-n-Mac: OK, let me try to reassure you via a "high speed" license and certification and provisions to revoke that license should they be bad boys.

ApS: What's wrong with Tres Martin's GFBL speed school? No HB162 opponent has volunteered having been there -- even to watch.

Bad boys? We have "Bad boys"?

Mee-n-Mac: I'm almost always been willing to put forth some extra effort to make somebody else feel better.

ApS: Clearly, you need to anchor off your shore some afternoon, although even your dock may not be safe. You recall the boater who destroyed 5 condominium docks with his speedboat -- with 18 passengers? An off-duty Cop? In a slow-speed zone? Sure, cops can feel "entitled", But should everybody with $375,000 to spend on a boat feel similarly entitled?

Mee-n-Mac: Personally I have no doubt that any performance boater worth his/her salt would have any problem passing such a course and test.

ApS: No kidding! It's not like the thoroughly disciplined testing you get when applying in Germany or England. There, drivers fail over and over again! And they check for nyctalopia -- night blindness -- too. You don't get a license there if you have night blindness. Here? Well, on Winnipesaukee, you can go as fast as you want at night, even though 1 out of 50 boaters have night blindness.

The lake is becoming a third-world escape for thrill-seekers, speeders, noise makers, public dock nuisances, rudeness, lewdness, alcohol, and even law enforcement. It's the "Me-Me-Me" generation come to visit...for two months.

Mee-n-Mac: "...I really don't see a speed problem on the lake. In the last 5 years I can recall just 1 case at night where I thought a boater was traveling too fast (in the absolute sense). In all my 30+ years on the lake I don't recall ever being afraid because of someone going at "high" speed.


ApS: Some skippers look down from their helms to other boats. Others have to look up. The ones looking down can afford to feel unafraid.

But I see a bonehead problem too -- exacerbated by chemicals, Mass., velocity, energy, and mass.

I pay $00.00 in liability insurance premiums for my 20-foot sailboat. Faster speedboats pay thousands in premiums -- some pay into the five-figures. Then we agree -- to disagree?

Mee-n-Mac: I've seen lots of bonehead behavior at speeds under those per HB-162 and I really do believe we have a bonehead problem not a speed problem.

ApS: Of course, one would.

The vast majority of boats owned by New Hampshire boaters can't go as fast as 45. It's an increasing minority of boats that the statute addresses.