MacGregorSailors.com

Seems in our part of town its the semi displacement boats that are the big offenders, with an 8 knot speed limit in the harbor some of them are in the habit of coming into that narrow channel at full throttle till they get to the exact place where the 8 knot sign is and shut her down, That too causes lots of problems. Like I said the mac under sail and making normal headway is least affected by the wake. The mac rides it just fine. But under power the mac will lay down one way then violently lay down the other way unless you quarter the wake. Not easy to do in that narrow channel where boats side by side going in are 20 feet apart..

hundreds of boats of all sizes go in and out of that channel everyday, some are commercial large boats and those guys act like professionals all the time, never causing a problem. Most of the big private semi displacement jobs do just fine too. Maybe some of these boat jockeys come from aviation, like rick was talking about, and they feel they have to come in hot to land their boat. What ever is on their mind courtesy and professionalism isnt one of them. I doubt any of the offenders are licensed hired skippers, more like dads borrowed boat types. The radio idea has merit but I think I would just call the offender on 16 and short and sweet say " so and so boat your coming in to hot, your wake is a danger to my boat". Then a call to the harbor police who monitor 16 if the boat doesnt slow down.
Most of the smaller boats effected by the wake dont have radios and a call of warning would go unnoticed, the PA has some merit too as the smaller boats will be able to brace for the coming wave if they hear it. But I think most small boats that use MDR are used to and on the look out for this all the time.

in a way these guys are in the right, theres no speed limit outside the harbor, so coming in at 12 knots then shutting down at the 8 knot sign is legal. But its not good seamanship, I believe, I want to believe, that pointing that out to them on a PA they would learn. Those that do it on purpose to actually toss the smaller boats around, the harbor police can deal with them. I once was pulling a hot head ski'er that was a guest of one of the families I have known and camped with for years, (I didnt know him) I pulled him past a sail boat at a safe distance, but this hot head cut across OUR the wake, leaned over and cut back and sprayed the sailboat people. The hot head thinking we will just go past and be on the other side of the lake and the sailboat wouldnt be able to do much about it. I shut the boat down left the ski'er in the water to take the heat from the sailboat people when they caught up to him Then I came around and apologized for his actions, and gave hot head a dirty look and told him to get in the boat, im not pulling him anymore. The rest of the week, I saw the sailboat people off and on and they waved at us from time to time, the hot head was embarrassed and didnt do stunts like that Again the rest of the week. Im hoping the same kind of outcome happens to the MDR HOT HEADS. But its not a mission or goal, or something Im going to bite at the bit to do, Im the skipper of my boat and responsible for the crews safety, Im not the harbor master if it happens and the opportunity is there Ill exercise my right to let them know they are putting my boat in harms way with their actions, and will let the harbor police handle it if a simple request to slow down is ignored. I certainly dont want it to wreck my day, so Im not going to put a whole lot of energy to it. But its fun to talk about here.
Mike

This is a basic courtesy issue. In our Hunter 34 we got bounced around quite a bit going out a narrow channel to the inlet. These huge sport fishing boats would plow gigantic wakes and pass us at 20 feet. I feel your frustration. Getting bounced around is quite the unpleasant boating experience.
Most of these guys are idiots with too much money and no common sense. No doubt they wouldn't know channel 16 from HBO. We had a guy (literally a brain surgeon) who was barreling towards the marina looking for the brakes. (Shortly thereafter his boat vanished from the marina leaving dock lines and we wondered if he sank the 42' $250,000 sport fisherman boat).

I'm kind of in favor of the megaphone idea. Maybe Cap'n Gonzo just needs to be told he's causing a problem. His wake is also his legal liability. The fish will wait if he slows down just a tad.
We also experienced the guidos in their cigarette boats. They were predictable; 4 or 5 shirtless guys buzzing down the bay at WOT waking every living thing with their un-muffled exhaust. I'm sure it made them feel "larger" if you know what I mean. What it really did was annoy every other boater on the bay.

I don't know the answer. It's one of the things I don't miss at all when I'm the only boat within sight on our 30 mile long lake.

--Russ

yeah Russ, Im afraid a lot of the guys out there are as you described, Im hoping they are not, and its just something they are not aware of and the megaphone just might be the trick. I really have a hard time thinking that my fellow man is that mean, and lacks common courtesy, that will intentionally disrupt others, even to the point of mabey swamping someones boat. Like you said they are liable for damages their boat wake causes, if they put a guy on the rocks there could be a loss of a whole boat and maybe some injuries. You may be right and what will happen is Ill get flipped off asking them to slow down, but Im hopping its just lack of skill.

Utube, some guy posted a video he and his buddy shot as they flew by a sail boat, In their power boat, the sailboat guy actually fell out of the boat because of it. The two guys that shot the video and drove the power boat that did it, posted the video because they thought it was funny, They were even laughing hard in the video, and never went back to see if the guy that fell out, was alright, didnt think the guys wallet and keys and such could be lost, didnt think the guy (who looks alone on the sailboat), couldnt get back in. My point is, all the comments written about the video were condemnation of the two guys actions. They took a lot of flack from other people, not one comment said it was cool and funny. We have them out there thats for sure, but Im guessing its only a few. Well hoping

I got my 50watt megaphone today........its loud and clear.
Mike

Not advocating anything here but I donate to The Sea Shepard Society and they have a little trick they use to foul props of illegal whalers, (please don't respond with comments on enviro political views) a length of floating waterski line directly in the offenders path might slow him down and if not you swing around and retrieve it. I have been swamped (full to the gunwales) while under tow, unfortunately not by Coast Guard or Harbor Patrol,they could have ticketed the offender, in winter waters in Puget Sound and the offender was a large yacht screaming through Possession Point salmon fishing grounds with small boats all around. At the time you kind of wish for things like a torpedo launcher on your boat and wishing you could fire one off at the offender since he had so little regard for those in small boats that are already struggling in conditions made worse by a rip tide. I haven't had to take direct action since then but there have been some close calls and I don't suffer fools lightly who show total disregard for others and unfortunately there are many people out there who could care less about you or me. Now, back to my movie, Taken. - Moderators, if you feel you need to remove this post, I don't have a problem with that.

Certainly can see how a thread like the one I started here can bring out emotional feelings and because we cant understand why someone would drive a large boat at a fast speed and knock over small boats in their path, we tend to lean towards, the conclusion, money, spoiled, better than any one else type people in those expensive large boats. But as I stated all along here I dont think its that at all, Its just plain and simple lack of experience, under trained, and false sense of security that goes along with a bigger boat. Although we have people in our society that go out of their way to be in other peoples faces, they are few and far between. I believe a guy has a 50 foot boat, he thinks his biggest challenge is to dock it, once he learns that well, I can see them just taking the rest for granted and consider themselves expert mariners.

They have the radio thing down, the docking, and the false respect from fellow large boaters because his boat is so big and expensive. We as boaters always have to drive more than one boat at a time when we are out, we have to anticipate all the other boaters around us and sometimes steer our boats to compensate for others lack of skill or brain fade at the time. Driving a big boat around, Its easy to get into the thinking that everyone else needs to get out of their way, because most people do get out of their way, rightly so. Anyone that would get mad at me for asking them to slow down because their wake will cause me problems, is the least amount trained, and skilled. Hes already on the edge, and I just put him over it. That person needs to do some soul searching

Last week the wind at MDR was kinda crazy, it was off some than normal, instead of dropping my main sail down in a finger in the marina, Like I always did, I had to do it in the main channel that was bizzy. I asked Karen to drop the main this time and I would steer the mac. As we were doing this another sail boat was coming up on my right under power, it was a tight fit to the docks between us, but doable, unless I steered to the right a little. I didnt see him coming, and the skipper guessed it, he yelled out "coming up on your starboard side" to me. It shocked me a little and I looked and sure enough there he was. I turned to my dog that was back behind me and joking, yelled at her and said "you were supposed to tell me if a boat comes up from that side" The other boater shocked with my tone and thinking Im talking to him at first, realized it was the dog I was talking to and laughed, as I did. I needed someone to tell me that boat was close, and the skipper of the boat did tell me.

I think some of the problem boaters this thread is about needs someone to tell them theres a problem, and I think, like I did, will appreciate the heads up, or like I said let the harbor police talk to them.
Mike