No Wake at the Barbers Pole...???

[ApS]

(Previously quoted)

I seriously question the wisdom of using such a device.

1) The device is relatively small: When it's sunny, we'll get blinding flashes off of the windshields of moored bowriders. It's even worse when wakes from oversized boats are present to rock them.

2) Tuesday, I had to use the PED on a floatplane: He'd taken off in the normal fashion, but he then turned into the wind and became a threat to my 20' mast. You'd have to be a dunce NOT to communicate in this manner: Floatplanes see nothing on the lake after "rotation". A brief flash was all that I can muster. With today's proliferating noise pollution, a whistle is hardly useful today—anywhere.

Pilots see ground flashes every minute—especially off ponds and skylights.

This is not a lazer.

You know I really don't try to be be confrontational with you, but I still have no clue what you are talking about. And I am sure I am not alone.

After reading VtSteve's so-called answer, I think the topic is above the heads of most. It is also difficult to talk "around" the subject of Sedition on this forum: If you haven't seen and understood this chalkboard's message, there's nothing to talk about, anyway: http://api.ning.com/files/zaKh6yndI5...8033100939.jpg

The chalkboarder's technique is important, however, and you'll find that very technique here—and at the SOS forum. With only 45,000 members, they still attempt to overwhelm a naive public: If bluster, vote-fraud and obfuscation don't work, they instead use intimidation.

It's the national problem of bullying—brought to the issues found within our sorely-abused inland waters. I think the few of us opposed to oversized boats here at this forum, suffer only a little—at the constant criticism and the tactics of shadiness: but some have suffered unduly.

Just ask winni.com member, LRSLA.

I do find it humorous that some of the biggest performance boat haters on this forum seem to spend a lot of time on performance boat forums. Thank you because without you posting about them here I would never have known about them!

You may find that bluster and threats are your kind of answers, but there is much to dislike about the arrogance found amply among SOS boaters.

Be sure to check on their choice of firearms aboard and their propensity for liquor. Search "Tanqueray" for a thread on drinking aboard, and some light may glow near the VitaBene horizon.

I've seen only one SOS member who agreed with SOTD, TB, BI, ApS and elchase. His was the most introspective response there in a decade. He was full of empathy for the boaters who weren't elite and smug, "30-somethings".

Among the usual wildly self-congratulatory SOS membership—nobody came forward to counter his argument. His arguments against night travel at high speeds was particularly convincing.

SOS is the only forum of whom I'm aware, has called Don a Nazi in print.

You keep referring to "oversize boats". How do you define an oversize boat? What makes your determination correct? Could someone with a different perspective define a 15 foot Whaler or a kayak as an undersized boat? What would make them correct?

If you are trying to establish that a certain sized wake establishes the criteria for a no wake zone would you expect that anytime and any place that the same size wake reaches the shore on Winnipesaukee it should be a no wake zone in that area too? Do you think that people that have property on more open parts of the lake don't see any boat wakes hit the shoreline in front of their house?

I have been on the lake for over 40 years and bought a home on the lake many years ago in an area that has substantial waves, especially on the weekends. I own two other pieces of property on the lake, one of which is in a no wake zone.

I accept what is here and the changes that have occurred and realize that if I don't like it, I can move on. I would suggest that anyone else who owns property on the lake has the same option. If you want the small lake atmosphere, go to a small lake.

1) We put actual "sweat-equity" into clearing our lot for our cottage.

We have "skin" in this game.

Since this has been the family's cottage for over a half-century, perhaps you can understand why I prefer to restore some sanity to this lake. You will find a "small lake atmosphere" in every Winnipesaukee cove, bay and harbor. That's why the issues exist in the first place.

If you'd lived in those places, you'd see oversized boats enter coves from open water—only to throw their oversized boat into wide-open throttle. The sound is similar to a truck engine about to throw a rod—if the sound is not overwhelmed by inadequate muffling.

2) When I had the feeling that I was overseeing Chaos and Anarchy on Lake Winnipesaukee, I wrote a letter to a local editor. It appeared in print three days before Littlefield withdrew his 4½-ton Baja from the eyes of NHMP investigators.

Littlefield''s response to a retiree's personal disaster, crushed to death while a passenger in a lesser boat—right in the middle of Lake Winnipesaukee—is no different than what is seen (if not urged) at SOS.

SOS is always saddened by the "accidental deaths" of its many members, but always the first in line to defend their frequent depredations on lesser boats.

"They were fishing in the channel!"

When referring to oversized boats, I'd put the following discussion at the top of my answer. You don't need anything greater than what was widely recommended here, last year.

Recently, a much larger Cobalt sank in rough Winnipesaukee waters. There are times when intentionally embarking on Winnipesaukee's rough waters should be reconsidered.

Weather is "big" with me.

The 22' Eastern is plenty; also, even the largest of pontoon boats don't affect me or my shoreline with their wakes. You have to sit and observe in coves, bays and harbors to witness this.

Each passage of an oversized boat at BP affects both sides of BP-residents' homes, boats, shorelines and docks: that passage may even be done multiple times each day. Even some smaller boats cannot be excluded from the criticism of their wake-making effects there.

Look deeply within yourself: It's not the residents' fault that this NWZ has come about.

Conditions at Barber's Pole are worse than any of Winnipesaukee's other coves, bays, and harbors.

IMHO.