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Posts: 3920
| Almost got hit by a Mastercraft pulling a wakeboarder 45 mins after sunset last night. The driver and two passengers were all watching the gal getting pulled and the tunes were up so loud I doubt an air horn would have gotten their attention. Less than 100' from impact the driver turns forward, sees me and cuts left to miss me by about 50'. The chick on the board gives me a "Yahooo!!!" as she slides by. I then get water over the FRONT of my 14' alum deep-v.
I waited until they were docking and then buzzed over to have a chat. By this time it's dark and at about 100' away I hit them and held them with the gazillion power Q-beam. I was pretty mad; they were pretending I wasn't there though eventually I was only 10' away and still holding them in the beam of a light as bright as the sun. But when I shined their boat numbers then punched the numbers into my phone, they began to pay very close attention indeed.
Turns out they thought I was the law; they knew they screwed up and expected a serious ticket. The driver said he knew he made a big mistake and repeatedly said he was very sorry and would never do that again. Teenagers; just young and dumb, but polite, folks. I'm older and still sorta dumb, plus I can't stay mad at nice people, so I thanked them for their future consideration of fisherpeople and left.
I used to hate pesky jetskis. But they've been trumped by those huge speedboats pulling a wakeboarder at 8mph and putting out 5' waves.
Grrrrrrrr......
Edited by Ranger 7/12/2007 8:10 AM
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Dude, glad you made it thru this OK, and they manned-up to their mistake. m |
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Posts: 1270
| I wonder what they would have thought if you wouldn't have seen them and hooked the wakeboarder with a 10" Suick? |
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| I was nearly hit by a personal watercraft guy....he was heading right for me but looking in a different direction. He was only 25 ft away when he finally looked my way. His subsequent evasive maneuver nearly swamped the boat. I know its funny to joke about throwing baits at guys like that but realistically that Suick could rip someone's face off which wouldnt be cool either..... |
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Posts: 785
| Hitting someone with a suick would give them an immediate trip to the ER, but its just a common joke to relieve frustration at the moment. Some friends of mine (not real bright guys) just bought a used 16' fiberglass boat, took it to the Mississippi and got swamped the first time out by a big play cruiser that put a big wave over the side. I didn't know wheather to laugh or cry when I heard about it. Poor guys, not sure if the boat stopped or just kept on a going. |
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Posts: 462
Location: Syracuse, Indiana | I still wish there was a way to educate these folks to avoid what I see as an inevitable collision. How about requiring a license to drive a boat? Any chance any state's legislature would buy into the idea? |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | David, in Ohio, the Lege took a step in that direction several years ago - mostly in response to the outbreak of PWC's - requiring those born after a certain date to pass a written test before operating a watercraft over 10 hp. My son was 15 when he passed his test, and he immediately jumped my case about some of my driving habits! He has actually been asked for his watercraft certificate a time or 2.
As with cars, you can't legislate common sense, just make users familiar with the laws and rules that govern their actions. m |
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| Coast guard statistics,,put it at 10% of all watercraft are pwc's,,and 30% of all reported boating accidents are pwc related |
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| In a second incident I had a personal watercraft cut between me and the bank I was fishing on even though there was only about 40 ft to move through. He almost swamped me. My feeling is we need stricter enforcement of the laws and higher penalties for violating them. |
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