Water driveways

[BroadHopper]

Originally Posted by Formula260SS

Maybe there is no work to do.......and that my friends is the "other" problem

Retirement maybe?????

[Merrymeeting]

Originally Posted by BroadHopper

Originally Posted by Formula260SS
Maybe there is no work to do.......and that my friends is the "other" problem


Retirement maybe?????

Or perhaps the old 9-5 model no longer works. With meetings with people in Asia, Europe, and the West coast, my day often starts at 6AM and ends at 11 PM. No such thing as a 9-5 day anymore.

But, this is a topic for another thread...back to the point of water rights, use, and abuse...

[RC246]

Ok, as an observer I'll put in my 2 cents of what happened that beautiful day.
The boats anchored, were NO WHERE near the loon area or the shoreline of that island.
In fact, you could have navigated a barge with room to spare to the dock where these older folks where headed without doing what they did. If there had been people in the water it would have been more serious than it was.
Picture yourself and YOUR family in your boat and another boat on a heading right for the transom of your boat faster than max wake speed.
What do you do besides use your horn, yell, and wave or get ready to jump off your boat before the collision occurred.
Needless to say the whole incident would have left a nasty package in the seat of your pants!!

This couple was flat out WRONG, PERIOD.

[TomC]

set up the same scenario - this time with a video camera at the ready...

As far as the waterfront/boater rights, if you replace "in the lake, right in front of my beach" with "on the sidewalk, right in front of my house" - it may give a different perspective on the use of public property for recreation and how it impacts the landowner immediately adjacent to it...

[OCDACTIVE]

Tomc, I think you definately put a very good perspective on the situation. I also feel that there has to be a compromise. If I were coming home and a family had set up a picnic in front of my house by the sidewalk, although I do not own the land and have no "rights" to it, I would still be a bit upset.

Now with that said, while your description has merit, you can not draw a direct comparrison from the sidewalk in front of your house to the lake. People come into coves to get out of the wind / stay out of channels and areas of traveling boat traffic.

In the situation that sparked this thread, it wasn't a group of noisy, littering, annoying boats anchored right off their dock (from the sounds of it). They were not impeding access to the docks. In this case I would totally agree with RC246.. TOTALLY WRONG. While the home owners may not like where they were rafting, they had no right to do what they did.

Even if they thought that the rafters were breaking the law anchoring where they were positioned, it doesn't give them the right to drive that close above no wake speed, plain and simple.

Just my 2 cents. Play on.

[Lakegeezer]

Originally Posted by TomC

set up the same scenario - this time with a video camera at the ready...

As far as the waterfront/boater rights, if you replace "in the lake, right in front of my beach" with "on the sidewalk, right in front of my house" - it may give a different perspective on the use of public property for recreation and how it impacts the landowner immediately adjacent to it...

The analogy of a sidewalk doesn't seem quite right. It is as if you bought a home next to a public park and then objected when people showed up on Saturday to play a game of baseball or have a picnic. When someone buys a house in a nice quiet cove, they should assume that others want to enjoy it too, and will. All told, boaters will be in the cove less than 2% of the year (5 hours a day, 3 days a week, 12 weeks a year). Unfortunately, that may overlap the limited time the home owner chooses to be there too, and they can't pull anchor and move to a different cove.

Perhaps the right attitude for boaters and home owners alike to have is one of sharing. The boater is not alone and should act that way. If they are looking for privacy, they need to go somewhere else. The home owner has already chosen a spot that must occasionally be shared and must accept that.

Some of the conflict comes from the home owners who have managed to get no-rafting laws enacted in their areas. To extend the analogy, this is like having the town ban playing baseball in some parts of the public park because the neighbors complain. This causes other areas of the park to be used more frequently, so other neighbors start complaining until the point that baseball and picnics are no longer allowed in the public park.

The result of no-rafting rules causes some boaters to find other areas, and the choices have become limited. Coves that used to be rarely used are being found and have become popular. One solution is to revoke no-rafting laws and open the entire lake back up to the public. It could start with Kona!

[alsadad]

Originally Posted by Lakegeezer

One solution is to revoke no-rafting laws and open the entire lake back up to the public.

Lakegeezer, I wholeheartedly agree that boaters and waterfront landowners need to be more sharing. I am both, and I suspect you are, too. But if the abutting landowners, or someone else, have told you that no-rafting areas are closed to the public then you need to set them straight. These areas are NOT closed to the public, nor are boaters prohibited from anchoring there. And, ironically enough, “no rafting” doesn’t even literally mean no rafting, it means that rafts are limited to two boats. It does seem that some waterfront landowners think the lake in front of their homes is closed to the public, but that doesn’t mean they’re right.