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Weekend Pundit · 11-23-2006, 10:18 AM

I, too, had a run in with the Marine Patrol about the 150-foot rule, but not because I had violated it.

My son and I were leaving Glendale and making headway between Pig Island and Lockes Island. As we got to where I thought was about 150 feet from land, I pulled our little home-made range finder from next to the helm, sighted to the closest shoreline, and saw that we were just beyond 150 feet (It's calibrated with 150', 300', 450', and 600' markers). I put the rangefinder down and prepared to come up on plane. Just as I was bending on some throttle I caught sight of one of the MP boats out of the corner of my eye and saw he'd just turned on his blues. I cut the throttle and waited to see what was going on. He motored over and asked what it was I had used to take a sighting.

I pulled out our rangefinder and explained how my son and I had fabricated and calibrated it (he'd made it as part of a school project he'd had back in May). The MP officer gave it a try and said "Wow, that's pretty neat!" He handed it back and told us to have a nice day.

In any case, I have found that my judgement of just how far 150' is spot on as verified by the rangefinder.

11-23-2006, 10:18 AM	#18
Weekend Pundit Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Gilford Posts: 345 Thanks: 26 Thanked 69 Times in 42 Posts	Funny '150-foot' incident I, too, had a run in with the Marine Patrol about the 150-foot rule, but not because I had violated it. My son and I were leaving Glendale and making headway between Pig Island and Lockes Island. As we got to where I thought was about 150 feet from land, I pulled our little home-made range finder from next to the helm, sighted to the closest shoreline, and saw that we were just beyond 150 feet (It's calibrated with 150', 300', 450', and 600' markers). I put the rangefinder down and prepared to come up on plane. Just as I was bending on some throttle I caught sight of one of the MP boats out of the corner of my eye and saw he'd just turned on his blues. I cut the throttle and waited to see what was going on. He motored over and asked what it was I had used to take a sighting. I pulled out our rangefinder and explained how my son and I had fabricated and calibrated it (he'd made it as part of a school project he'd had back in May). The MP officer gave it a try and said "Wow, that's pretty neat!" He handed it back and told us to have a nice day. In any case, I have found that my judgement of just how far 150' is spot on as verified by the rangefinder.