Safe boating discussion.

[T.S.Davis]

On the nats pond, one of the locals that live on the lake chewed my butt for going too fast in the row boat the morning after the race and making noise doing so. Guilty as charged. Lost my head. Long week. However, the residents there run chain saws, weed whips, tree chippers, and riding mowers it seems like about 12 hours a day as far as I could tell. It's constant. I could have argued the point but what fer? It wasn't an argument I wanted to win.

So I apologized and promised it would never happen again. Then went back to skimming buoy crumbs from the shoreline. Think we got most of them.

In today's day and age, a video of said butthead can linger like a smelly fart.

[Rumdog]

I'm so glad I live in the woods..

[Doug Smock]

This isn't a safety thing. More of a don't screw it up for everyone else thing.

So it's ok to run a 50", 15 to 20#, 60 mph boat right at the bank with spectators at the waters edge?
We've seen videos of guys running with swimmers in the near proximity.

It's a safety thing as well. Or at least it will be if someone gets hurt.

I intended this thread to raise awareness to all of the above.

You don't have any cards do you Terry?

[T.S.Davis]

So it's ok to run a 50", 15 to 20#, 60 mph boat right at the bank with spectators at the waters edge?
We've seen videos of guys running with swimmers in the near proximity.

It's a safety thing as well. Or at least it will be if someone gets hurt.

I intended this thread to raise awareness to all of the above.

You don't have any cards do you Terry?

If I had a card I would make sure it was actually the correct card. If I played the card at the wrong time nobody will respect me.

Probably a bad idea to run a small 90mph hydro close to shore too. Anything can happen at those speeds. We saw a video of the fastest guy on the planet where his boat left the water and landed in some trees. Crap happens. Even to the most experienced guys. Have to use our heads.

[T.S.Davis]

We're off on a behavior tangent but another I just remembered.....

If you're the guy that feels you need to threaten another racer on or off the pond, during or after racing, on or offline, please find another hobby. There is no place for you in this hobby.

Yes it's happened.

[grsboats]

Probably a bad idea to run a small 90mph hydro close to shore too. Anything can happen at those speeds. We saw a video of the fastest guy on the planet where his boat left the water and landed in some trees. Crap happens. Even to the most experienced guys. Have to use our heads.

..well said ......so common sense !
Gill

[T.S.Davis]

Gill,
Dead on correct. Common sense will almost always be enough. That, and assume that something could go wrong.m

One can easily see where the safety rules came from in both IMPBA and NAMBA. Since some can't be trusted to use common sense they had to put it in writing. Some of those rules are so obvious.

[Luck as a Constant]

Gill,
Since some can't be trusted to use common sense they had to put it in writing. Some of those rules are so obvious.

is this anything like the "do not eat" warnings on silica packets? I mean....i almost ate one.... but thanks to the warning i figured out NOT to eat it.
what a tease tho. i figured they just threw in a little treat with my non perishable non food item. "shucks"

[Shoot to thrill]

After having a friend crash one of my boats into the dock we were standing on, I am a big fan off setting a safe distance off the dock or shore to run. As well as danger zones at the end of straits before a turn etc.

I have had a lot of problems getting to ponds early in the morning only to have fisherman show up after I have been there, and am just doing my last boats checks. More than once I have had a guy run down to the water and throw a line in then look at me, then go back to their truck for the kitchen sink. As soon as I put the boat in the water I get the "I'm fishing asshole!" Routine.

Because the boats make any noise, and move fast we definitely have to tread lightly as others have stated so well above. Unfortunately that means walking away from a nice spot more often than not. Regardless of our rights to use them.

[HangTheMan]

We have a little lake (pond) behind our house that I run my small boats in. I run boats such as the 20" and under that go less than 25 mph in it. I also have a bigger lake across the street that I run my larger, but still slow boats in. I run my US-1 (Relentless) and Offshore Infinity in this lake. Even though they are slower boats (under 40 mph) I still take precautions. As there are homes around the lake, I try to run only when there are no one in the back yard. Sometimes, the kids and neighbors are fascinated by the boats and come out to watch. Most of the homes have a fence that is 10 feet from the lake's shore, and I always make sure I am at least 15 ft from shore as well. Sometimes, the kids would go out the gates and come to the edge of the lake to watch. When this happens, I don't run my boat down to that are of the lake but stay close to my end. I had a parent ask why I do that when the kids want to see the boat. I explained to her about the safety concerns I had and that even though the boats are not too fast and their is an extremely low possibility of accidents, I still would rather err on the safe side and keep the boats away from the side of the lake where her kids were. She actually was very thankful that I was concerned for the kids safety after I explained to her. She even asked me if I could give the kids a lesson on proper boat operating if she bought her kids a boat. In addition, I never run the boats when there are people in the water or if there are paddle boats in the water. I am also lucky that our neighborhood is enclosed and surrounded by a park (reserve) that has two large lakes. It is actually a large retention area. The perimeters of the lake is under 3 miles and the lakes are perfect for running boats. this is where i run my faster larger boats. There are very little water fowls and the banks on the lakes slide down about 10 feet on all sides. Still, I don't run near where people are fishing or when there's water fowl. Since its a retention, it does not allow swimming, boats, canoes, kayaks, etc.. I have ran my boats there many times and most of the time I am the only person utilizing the waters. Everyone else is either jogging or biking around the trails. I get lots of people stopping by to watch the boats and all have been very fascinated with it.

[Peter A]

I thought I would share my experience from Saturday. Our club is running a four round offshore endurance series this year, the first was on Saturday. This is all petrol/nitro deepvee or cat, as FE simply cannot do 20,30 and 60 minute races.
Anyhow, after managing to run over the top bouy (which is about 50m past turn 3) and flip my boat. I went out in the rescue dinghy to recover it. Our dinghy is a 6' aluminium dinghy with a 2hp outboard. I got my boat and was on the way back when another boat came straight towards me, hit the side of the dinghy and hit me square in the chest. This knocked me over and the dinghy flipped and I was swimming. Fortunately I had on the life jacket and the water was warm. The dinghy however went stern down and was floating (just) with only the bow sticking out. I was ok and tried to swim the dinghy back to shore but that was a no go. The guy that hit me jumped in and swam out a rope and a couple of others pulled the boat back in and we swam back to shore with our boats.
The club member that hit me had throttled off as he came near but simply misjudged where his boat was. The rule is that the rescue boat has right of way, period! I was not hurt (except a small graze and bruise on the sternum) and did not panic when I went in the water. It is all good and after recovering every thing we carried on with our days racing and I dried out by lunchtime.
What did I learn?
Accidents can happen, even though we try our best to avoid them.
Our dinghy needs more bouyancy, I should have been able to right it, recover the oars and get back to shore.
We need a better lifejacket. Even though it did it's job, it was difficult to swim in.
If this had happened to someone else, or in winter, then perhaps it could have been much worse.

I spent a lot of my younger days in and around the water in dinghy's and small and not so small sailboats, I think that helped as I still knew what to do and didn't panic. It just shows that even with precautions things can go wrong. As one of my clubbies put it, "it was serious..but funny". I also have no ill feelings toward the other clubbie that hit me, he just made a mistake and I'm ok. But there are things that we will learn from it!

[JimClark]

Rescue boat is out on the course then no other boats should be running

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[Peter A]

Rescue boat is out on the course then no other boats should be running

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At sprint racing regattas this is the case. However during endurance racing boats are rescued while the other boats continue. This has been done for many years. It is the rule that the rescue boat has total right of way. I have spent a lot of time in rescue boats but you are still wary of any boat traveling at speed around you. Even a near miss is not a good thing and I had one of those at our last Nats, and it was a top driver, and pitman not paying attention. I am going to address the issue at National level further this year to ensure that all our members realize the seriousness of being in and around water doing what we do.

Anyone who hits a rescue boat is also dq from that event. Twice and you are off the water for the rest of the regatta!

[Doby]

At sprint racing regattas this is the case. However during endurance racing boats are rescued while the other boats continue. This has been done for many years. It is the rule that the rescue boat has total right of way. I have spent a lot of time in rescue boats but you are still wary of any boat traveling at speed around you. Even a near miss is not a good thing and I had one of those at our last Nats, and it was a top driver, and pitman not paying attention. I am going to address the issue at National level further this year to ensure that all our members realize the seriousness of being in and around water doing what we do.

Anyone who hits a rescue boat is also dq from that event. Twice and you are off the water for the rest of the regatta!

Hope your insurance provider is OK with that.

[Fluid]

Yep. In the US that would be a reason to deny a claim - I realize this happened in NZ. Just because it has been done for many years does not make it right. Let's weigh the risk/penalty: A QD from the regatta - or a serious injury to the rescue boat operator.....should be a no-brainer. What would have happened if the boat had hit Peter in the mouth knocking out a few teeth? Or in the eye? Would club members be willing to pony up the medical fees? OTOH in the countries with universal health care that may not be an issue to get the injury fixed. No problem whatsoever, except that the injured party may be missing an eye. Eh, the guy who did it was QD'd afterall...



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