Battle of the boat dollars; State vs Local

[Airwaves]

Maybe you misunderstood?

J.A.B. wrote in part:

The two big boats use a few people on board to operate it, and use a hell of a lot of fuel and I doubt if they could catch a boat in a chase. I think they should sell them boats (ON THE OCEAN) and use smaller crafts on the lake that are not costing so much.

Those vessels are not used by the USCG or the Marine Patrol for chasing down violators of the law.

They are utility boats.

They are designed for heavy weather. They are designed to take the prop wash from a USCG or Medical helicopter.

So, if you are in trouble on Lake Winnipesaukee, the past few days are a good example, do you want an 18 foot Sears aluminum boat with an outboard trying to rescue you? Or maybe a 25' boat that Marine Patrol might have on hand, or whatever else may be available?

Do you want a vessel with a crew on board that is designed for heavy weather and rescue operations headed out onto the lake to save your ass?

I know that many folks on Winnipesaukee have labeled the former CG boats "Battleships" but when the weather is bad those "Battleships" can and will save your life and the lives of your loved ones.

Or I can lend them an 8' rowboat.

[John A. Birdsall]

I had not thought too much about that, I have seen one of these boats out on patrol during the day. And then on the 4th of July firworks out of Alton Bay they put that large craft at echo point and the stern was not lite up it was on the bridge and we came much too close. 50% of that dark boat could not be seen at night. I have no idea if they corrected that or not.

It has its uses I will grant that, but I think it is too big. And when they had the steel crafts in the 50's the towns had their police boats out patroling. Mr. Cates did Alton Bay and knew where everyone was. and he had a 15' starcraft with an evinrude on it I believe. I could be wrong, but he knew what I had.

[Airwaves]

I believe the "Battleships" are 41 or 44 footers, certainly not the largest vessels on the lake by a long shot.

As for the stern light I don't know the answer to that one off the top of my head. I think it needs to be on the stern because there is an all around white light required on the masthead so if that is the only white light you saw then you might want to point that out to them, but I am not certain without looking up the regs on that size boat.

http://www.winnipesaukee.com/photopo...ze=big&cat=502

Times have certainly changed since Mr Cates patroled Alton Bay, the islands are more populated for one not to mention the increase in the use of the lake. There is a lot to be said about having officiers assigned to specific areas of the lake getting to know residents but that goes to the staffing issue again.

[Airwaves]

J.A.B
I looked up the lighting rules for both NH and the CG to see if the stern light has to be on the stern. This is what I found.

From the NavRules. Rule 21. C.
"Sternlight" means a white light placed as nearly as practicable at the stern showing an unbroken light over an arc of the horizon of 135 degrees and so fixed as to show the light 67.5 degrees from right aft on each side of the vessel.

From the NH Boaters Guide
If less than 65.6 ft. (20 meters) long, these vessels must exhibit the lights as shown in Figure 1. Remember, power-driven vessels include sailboats operating under power. The required lights are:
• Red and green bow lights visible from a distance of at least one mile on a dark clear night
• An all-round white light or both a masthead light and a sternlight. These lights must be visible from a distance of at least two miles on a dark clear night. The all-round white light (or the masthead light) must be at least one meter (3.3 ft.) higher than the bow lights.

Then I got thinking, if you nearly ran into the Marine Patrol “Battleship” during the 4th of July event then it could be that it was there as a fixed station and had it’s “anchor” light on?

From the NH Boaters Guide
All vessels are required to use a white light visible for 360 degrees and visible from a distance of two miles whenever they are moored or anchored away from dock between sunset and sunrise.

From the NavRules Rule 30 a & b
(a) A vessel at anchor shall exhibit where it can best be seen:
i. in the fore part, an all-round white light or one ball;
ii. at or near the stern and at a lower level than the light prescribed in subparagraph (i), an all-round white light.
(b) A vessel of less than 50 meters in length may exhibit an all-round white light where it can best be seen instead of the lights prescribed in paragraph (a) of this Rule.

So maybe what you saw wasn't the stern light but the anchor light?

[John A. Birdsall]

airwaves I won't disagree, however with traffic flow coming out of Alton Bay after the fireworks, and that boat stopped (I doubt if at anchor) without stern lights on, just a mast head, he was a hazzard to navigation. It was like having an additional 40-45' of land off 20" or so of shore aimed at the other shore. It was dangerous and should have stern lights on.

They were not out their doing bouy replacements as some of the older steel ships would do during the day.

By the way I think I saw one of those steelcrafts going into Paugus Bay on the 14th of Oct.

[Airwaves]

There really isn't a disagreement on my end. You where there I wasn't.

I'm just wondering if what you saw might have been the anchor light. The photos I've seen of the 41' boat on the forum aren't clear eough or close enough for me to spot a stern light.