Temporary Boating Certificate Change

[ApS]

Originally Posted by Bear Islander

The irresponsible answer is to fight this legislation because it doesn't go as far as we would wish. The world is not black and white. Sometimes you have to compromise and except a small victory. Then hope for a bigger victory in the future.

But this won't be "a victory": perhaps I can convince you of that.

1) Tuesday, a rental boat pulled up next door. It had five men aboard—all in "Island Maintenance" tee-shirts. Wouldn't "in-water training" pose a costly and unnecessary impediment to Winnipesaukee's maintenance businesses?

(Especially as more than one member of an "Island Maintenance" boating crew should be tested and qualified).

2) When just one day of renting is very costly, does no renter get a "free pass" in such changeable weather as we have here?

Originally Posted by Bear Islander

Like I said it's easy to take pot shots at temporary certificates.

Yes, it is!

We're into our second day of a cold and drizzly rain, and tomorrow looks no better —how does "in-water-testing" work for that five-man crew in their rental boat?

Originally Posted by Bear Islander

The reasonable answer is to tighten up the certificate process, make them harder to get and give the boater some in the water training.

In this, we can agree.

Too many boaters have no clue regarding the other types of watercraft on the lake: depending on how it's structured, in-water training could fix that. We need to be serious about certifications—the U.S. model of today has proven inadequate—IMO. The UK has the ultimate model for certification, but you've seen organized resistance from Winnipesaukee boaters:

Originally Posted by Bear Islander

Temporary certificates are a bad idea in my opinion. But that is NOT the question here. Getting ride of these certificates has been tried and failed. So what do we do now?

Use the system they have in the UK—demonstrate one's total "in-water" competence—easy, peasy.