Doug Lloyd wrote: >I for one am a firm believer in boat licensing for power boaters. Canada is now implementing their own version. It yet remains to be seen how effective this will be, but I know how ineffective not doing it has been. Some guy just bought a new boat last week, fueled up at a dock, didn't vent the fumes, and half blew up his bloody (literally) family in Victoria's inner harbor the other day. One needs to prove competency to drive an automobile, but up until recently with the phasing in of boat licensing, one could by a huge vessel, and head out into untold dangers, while running over a few "speed bumps" (Jed's real name). > I have some bad news for you, Doug: With the way they are phasing in the licensing, it is still possible to buy a monster power boat, and drive it away from the dock with no credentials other than financial, and it will be that way for some time yet. On the other hand, if you want to take out a 10 ft skiff with a 5 horse kicker, or a 14 ft sailing dinghy with a 2 horse auxiliary, you will need proof of a some kind of safe boating course very shortly. Mind you, this regulation also covers 12 ft personal water craft, with 150 HP (!!!) engines, and I suspect this is the boating population the regulation is really aimed at. But then, what do I know? It is entirely possible the Coast Guard spends more time rescuing idiots in 10 ft skiffs than idiots in 40 ft cabin cruisers, so the application of this regulation is entirely justified. Rob. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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