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Originally Posted by Islander
Living on an island I must boat at night all the time. I have crossed to the island on many a dark rainy night. It isn't possible to see every obstacle in the water at night. One could easily run down a swimmer that had just a few inches exposed.
I believe an operator must regulate their speed to match the conditions. Even then boating at night caries risks. Like driving in a snowstorm, you need to make adjustments to match the conditions, even then accidents happen.
However many operators have taken this one step to far. They think it is the responsibility of anyone or anything on the lake at night to have a light. This is NUTS.
Someone can be out on the lake at night without any lights and not breaking any laws. If you run them down you better have a better story than they didn't have a light.
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OK, now I'm baffled. You stated that if you can't see, "you don't go" and that the responsibility to avoid unlit objects (swimmers, boats, canoes, etc) lies with the boat operator. Yet you state above you've crossed the lake many times when you could have easily run down a swimmer (assuming there had been one in your path) because "it isn't possible to see every obstacle in the water at night". So what would have been your story should such a thing have occurred to you some dark, rainy night ? What makes your unsafe speed different from the unsafe speed in this incident ?