Watch Out for the Marine Patrol

[ART]

In general I think that the Marine Patrol has too large of a presence on our lake. They are everywhere and to a law abiding boater like myself I find it annoying. MP being everywhere changes the atmosphere of the lake to a more uptight one. And do we really need unmarked MP boats and their very large MP 'ships'?

[ITD]

Art,

If you're law abiding, you have nothing to worry about, when I was younger I used to get nervous when a patrol car pulled behind me, then I realized if I'm doing nothing wrong they won't bother me. Now I don't even notice them. Same thing with MP, if I see them I wave, some wave back, some don't, so what? Don't worry about them, ignore them if you want and enjoy your time on the water,don't be uptight, life is too short.

Regardless of whether the guy won his case or not he's not too bright Kayaking w/o a life preserver. Too many people do this and die.


Skip, nice dissertation, well explained, good job.
ITD

[kchace]

The last time I was out on the lake (2 weeks ago) I saw the Marine patrol, I waved, they waved, and my family and I had a great day on the lake.

Today when I was out on the lake, I didn't see the marine patrol, and my family and I had a great day on the lake.

I'm certainly not perfect, but I try to obey the law. I've never had any issue with the marine patrol or the way they conduct themselves. I assume they're professional and they've always acted that way when I've seen them.

Its fine if someone disagrees with a law, but if you disobey a law and get called on it, you really don't have much to complain about.

Ken

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by ART

In general I think that the Marine Patrol has too large of a presence on our lake.

Art, I would respectully disagree with that based on a totaly unscientific 2 hour observation by me last spring. From the boardwalk at the Weirs I noticed a flashing light a few hundred yards off the piers, it seemed to be a MP boat alongside another boat. ALL the boats headed for the channel came down off plane and slowed before the buoys at the Paugus channel. Every boat traveled at "no wake" speed, had good seperation, and proceeded in an orderly manner through the channel. An hour later the MP boat was gone and the view changed radically. All the boats seemed to be playing a game of chicken and racing to see who could get to the channel first. Some didn't come off plane untill they were next to the beach. Just my opinion, that short "presence" caused a few boaters to be law abiding, even if only for an hour. Maybe there needs to be more presence.

[Fun4us]

Did you ever notice, that when they should or need to be around they are not. And when nothing is going on they are always there!
I think there presence on the lake is there for your protection.

[Just Wonderin]

Originally Posted by ART

In general I think that the Marine Patrol has too large of a presence on our lake.

The article referred to an incident on Squam. Are you on Squam or Winni. We live on the North side and rarely ever see Marine Patrol. I would love to see a large presence on our part of the lake. Once the summer is in full swing, we see an incredible amount of dangerous boating. We always wish that the Marine Patrol would be around to enlighten those boaters on safe boating practices.

Last year, we were heading to shore. We were probably 200 to 300 feet from shore. A ski boat with a water skier in tow came up on our right side and actually crossed our bow. We immediately stopped so as to avoid a collision with the water skier that was crossing our bow. He just missed us by only a few feet. The water skier yelled "sorry" to us as he passed.

When we got to shore, quite a few people had seen it. They all asked us if it was as close as it looked.

I wish there was a presence at that time. The boat sped away too quickly to get bow numbers, but that's the type of thing we see on our end of the lake on a daily basis.