Safe boating discussion.

[Doug Smock]

Hey fellas,

In lite of recent threads I thought we should talk about it.

What are your thoughts in general, and what can we do to make sure we don't loose sites.

Where do you run?
Are other people impacted by your hobby?
How do you handle yourself?

Thanks,

[JimClark]

Disqualified from the day's racing if you hit wildlife in one of the clubs in our area.

[Doug Smock]

It is serious Jim.
I had to go way back but I remember what it's like to loose a site, and this was a perceived problem. We treated the water fowl with respect.
The ducks were on the bank because that's where the bread and popcorn was.
It doesn't matter though. Once you're gone, you're gone. Like I said ''flies at their picnic".
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[Livewire121]

Sure I like to think I operate my RC vehicles in a safe manner. But 90% of my runtime is on a track, and being fairly new to boats.
I thought I had the bases covered with the usual common sense rules like,.
No people in the water.
No birds on the water.
Not running it close to shore.

But this past Sunday I was out for a run, made some nice passes. Started to push the boat a little harder and like an idiot I pushed to hard.
When it blew over and landed, it was about 60-70 feet from shore. The problem is, that I would have probably held on for another second.
Lesson learned, I was taking public safety for granted. I won't make that mistake twice!

[domwilson]

I think we should treat the water, the wildlife and the other patrons with respect. Running boats at these venues is a privilege and not a right. And as such, violator should be reprimanded (ticket) or in extreme cases, prohibited if they fail to follow posted rules. If you see someone who is not treating the area with respect, then remind them. But it is not our job to enforce it. Notify the correct personnel of continued abuse. Of course accidents can and do happen. But do your best to avoid them. Sometimes turtles surface at the wrong time, birds get curious, someone decides to cast a line, or you may hit an iceberg. Bottom line, practice safe habits and be aware of your surroundings.

[T.S.Davis]

After our last incident with water fowl our club enacted a water fowl rule. If the birds are on the course the heat gets called and we run it later in the day. It's not in our bylaws but is discussed at every drivers meeting. I really really like the "hit a bird and DQ'd for the day". For next year I'll be pushing for that.

At Shadow lake we also have a deer crossing rule because we had that at the apex between turns 2 and 3 last summer. Cute little fawn. Swimming at N1 speed. haha Ridiculous. Someone has pictures.

A couple I've seen or done.
Standing in the water running a boat. Crazy.
Coming back to shore too fast. Guilty. Not one of my finer moments. That was on my personal bad behavior list.

Anything that makes the locals uncomfortable I'm avoiding. I wasn't always that smart. Another example/opportunity to learn from my stupidity.

I used to run on a private lake that was electric only. No gas motors. There were electric pontoons and some canoe and that's about it. Peaceful. Early morning.......the loons are....um.....loon..ing?..........frogs a creek'n. A thin mist on the water. Story book beautiful. Can ya picture it?...................here I come blasting across the lake at 60 through the mist with a 43" Aeromarine Cat. Such a jack wagon. That's on my personal "I'm an idiot" list too. Don't be an idiot.

At the next association meeting they were talking speed limits. I quit running there even though I was part owner.

[Doby]

The origin of the deer crossing rule...

Michigan Cup 2013 196.jpg

[rickwess]

Running at my cottage lake, my biggest issue is freaking out every dog within a mile. It doesn't help that the best times to run are 8am and 8pm while the neighbours are trying to enjoy the peace and quiet of the waterfront. Not much they can complain about in terms of the noise (I could be firing up my 225 ProXS), but my conscience does kick in nonetheless.

[tlandauer]

I do sport boating, that's all I do, but I am extremely lucky to have the facility, yes, I am in So. Cal, I go to Legg Lake. ( Namba 1054) Since most of the time I am alone there, and if there are water fowl out there, I will do a slow circle around and give them plenty of time to move away. Heck, I have drained more than 50% of my batteries on numerous occasions. I am always aware of the watchful eyes of passersby, regardless whether they are amused with this hobby or disgusted with this endeavor, I remind myself that it is the latter group of people that I need to set a good example and I make sure that I have eye contact with them and acknowledge my respect for the wildlife.
The site, is always and foremost on my mind 24/7. I take vacation in the Teton National Park every year and I like to bring a big mono to one of the spectacular lakes there, I can't tell you on how many occasions I aborted my dream of running my boat because I suspected the people there at that moment might object to it. Last year I came home with fully charged batteries, lol....
I guess I grew up in a country where there is not much respect for individual rights and therefore I am particularly sensitive to that and if anything, I like to accord the respect to other people first and then I feel comfortable to let them learn what I do. I am writing this not to self aggrandize but like above said, it is a privilege but not a right, just like driving on public road.

[Fluid]

Waterfowl are a common problem around FE boats. At the 2001 NAMBA FE Nats in Alaska we were running at a lake on a University campus with lots of well-meaning young folks. They called the USFWS on us at least twice a day complaining that we were killing birds. Of course that wasn't the case, apparently they felt that a bird 100 yards off the course was in danger. After multiple trips to the lake and seeing nothing to worry about, one USFWS officer suggested that we buy a sack of cracked corn and have someone feed the ducks at the far end of the lake. This worked like a charm and was even sanctioned by the Fed bird cops. We have since used the same trick in Texas with good success. It's relatively cheap and it does keep the birds away from the course.


.

[T.S.Davis]

Not sure if any other ponds have this but for us at our home pond the only way you get access to it is by permit. It's closed pond with keyed access. You can't just show up and use the pond for anything you want. You can't even fish the pond. Although we see people jump the fence all the time. They're technically trespassing. We provide the City of Shelby additional site insurance through NAMBA for just in case. You just never know. For the things you can't anticipate. Remember my turtle example? They require that anyone participating with us on the pond be a NAMBA member or that they purchase single event insurance. Again, just in case.

Then when we are running at the pond, if a spectator wants to watch we allow them inside the gate but we give them direction as to where they should and shouldn't be. Complies with "Reasonable and proper provisions will be made for crowd control and for the safety of other members and spectators" from the rule book. That rule is terribly vague. I suspect that was deliberate but I also suspect it was intended to encourage some common sense. These are little projectiles with spinning razor sharp props and ginsu quality turn fins. Why risk it? The rule was intended (I think) to make us members realize that the safety of others is our responsibility as a model boaters.

[olwarbirds]

We lost one nice site here in south western NC because one resident complained about our FE boats being too "noisy and fast" . So we know how it feels to loose a quality site due to no fault on our part. We luckily do have a private club lake and numerous other sites to run at. One public pond we have been having to keep a watch on shore fishermen and dogs (ponds at a dogpark facility) who love to chase our boats. Respecting others be it wildlife, pets (even if the owner is disregarding a leash rule) has to be a constant thought. We seem to draw quit a spectator crowd, so our actions, language etc is on full display. So not just safety but how we respond to questions and react to the youth with all the questions is very important. I take a mild performing mono and my recovery tug, that I offer the truly interested child (after asking parent if its ok) adult if they would like to try it. Dont hurt to draw more new FE enthusiast anyway we can..... DJ

[flraptor07]

This is deffinetly a very needed thread, we all need to be aware of everything around us when we're at our lakes. As we all know, it only takes one idiot to spoil it for everybody. We all need to keep that idiot under control even if that idiot is sometimes yourself....

[T.S.Davis]

This isn't a safety thing. More of a don't screw it up for everyone else thing. Some of these I touched on earlier.

If a pond is available for RC use and you know that your club and others have applied for and received special permit from the city to use the pond, don't go there and run when ever your feel like it. Find out what the permit allows. If you're only approved for certain days stick to that. Doing it any ole' way you want to because you're above it all will only serve to screw it up for everyone. Our local authority knows what days MMEU is supposed to be on our home pond. There have been problems. Primarily with people that have no permit at all for any days. There will likely be fines for those using the pond without a permit in the future. So those using it without permission have essentially made it harder for those of us that are doing it the right way.

Also, if the local municipality has rules or even simple expectations that aren't even on paper............just try to make them happy. Pissing off the people that control our access to any particular body of water is just stupid in my opinion. Again, guess who pays the price? Everybody. So while you're busy fighting the city, the rules, the establishment, the man, etc....... all you're really doing is messing up the fun for the majority.

Clean up after yourself. At the nats we filled a dumpster and had about 10 bags outside the dumpster. Everyone did pretty well with the trash. I gave the grounds at another once over last night. Second walk through. Still found a few stray strips of tape. Not too bad considering how long we were out there. Just got me to thinking. We all need to do a better job keeping track of our debris. Tape seems to be the most common thing left behind. We need to think like boy scouts and leave it cleaner than we found it.

Last thing.......critters. We all know what a royal pain in the can it is when water fowl suck up our play time but I promise you that if the locals see us terrorizing the birds we're screwed. I don't care if they're Loons of those fly'n rats we get from down town Detroit. We will lose that battle. Sooooo......birds never stay in one spot long. Wait it out. They're just toy boats. We can wait 10 minutes for them to move along.

[don ferrette]

This isn't a safety thing. More of a don't screw it up for everyone else thing. Some of these I touched on earlier.

If a pond is available for RC use and you know that your club and others have applied for and received special permit from the city to use the pond, don't go there and run when ever your feel like it. Find out what the permit allows. If you're only approved for certain days stick to that. Doing it any ole' way you want to because you're above it all will only serve to screw it up for everyone. Our local authority knows what days MMEU is supposed to be on our home pond. There have been problems. Primarily with people that have no permit at all for any days. There will likely be fines for those using the pond without a permit in the future. So those using it without permission have essentially made it harder for those of us that are doing it the right way.

Also, if the local municipality has rules or even simple expectations that aren't even on paper............just try to make them happy. Pissing off the people that control our access to any particular body of water is just stupid in my opinion. Again, guess who pays the price? Everybody. So while you're busy fighting the city, the rules, the establishment, the man, etc....... all you're really doing is messing up the fun for the majority.

Clean up after yourself. At the nats we filled a dumpster and had about 10 bags outside the dumpster. Everyone did pretty well with the trash. I gave the grounds at another once over last night. Second walk through. Still found a few stray strips of tape. Not too bad considering how long we were out there. Just got me to thinking. We all need to do a better job keeping track of our debris. Tape seems to be the most common thing left behind. We need to think like boy scouts and leave it cleaner than we found it.

Last thing.......critters. We all know what a royal pain in the can it is when water fowl suck up our play time but I promise you that if the locals see us terrorizing the birds we're screwed. I don't care if they're Loons of those fly'n rats we get from down town Detroit. We will lose that battle. Sooooo......birds never stay in one spot long. Wait it out. They're just toy boats. We can wait 10 minutes for them to move along.

DING! DING! DING! Give that man a cigar! This is SPOT ON THE MARK and something EVERYONE should preach to all boaters they are around. All it takes is one selfish butthead to screw it up for the rest of us.................................