Stopped by the Marine Patrol - Advice Needed

[ApS]

Originally Posted by brk-lnt

The 150' rule is really one of the dumbest regulations on the lake. It's an unnecessary limitation that is poorly understood/estimated, and randomly enforced. It primarily serves to get a small number of people wound up and stressed out.

Back in the Mesozoic Era--before tubing skiers were in ascendancy and well aware of the danger when two skiers passed in opposite directions. With each at the end of a 75-foot tether, a "meet-up" at 150-feet would occur at double the skiers' speeds.

We skiers had no gripe with the 150-foot rule.

Originally Posted by TiltonBB

Be glad you are on a New Hampshire lake. During the winter while we are boating in Florida when travelling at 25 MPH or so we routinely get overtaken by other boats that pass 20 to 30 feet away. It has taken some getting used to because it happens every time we go out. It is just the way it is. I am surprised that there are not more boating accidents.

Florida leads the nation in boating accidents and fatalities.

1) A boater (not personally known to me) living near me in the Florida Keys trailered his speedboat to a canal near my Sebring lake property. With his girlfriend watching, he crashed his boat and drowned.

2) To set a speed record, Craig Arfones, from out-of-state traveled to Lake Jackson (Sebring, again).

So, with a large (3212 acres) quiet lake and his parents watching, he crashed his boat and drowned.

See where I'm going?

3) A half-hour north of Sebring, two professional baseball players ran their bass boat under a dock, which beheaded both of them. (and were pronounced dead at the scene).

These occurred on Florida inland lakes: Ocean crashes are much worse!

PWCs lead the way, with paddle boards catching up. The common denominator being drowning.

I was surprised to see Florida's northern St. Johns County in the lead, but when you factor in Florida's richest County with the wealthiest Counties listed (SE and SW) as the most dangerous for boaters, it sorta adds up!

https://news.wgcu.org/top-story/2024...tate?_amp=true