Water Sport Etiquette

[zegm]

I love that terminology "the flies"! That is Great!
And now it makes sense of why they come behind my boat, the wake!
I guess they see an inboard and assume that it puts out a great big ole wake! Well they must be dissappointed when they come behind ours! I guess next year after we get a V with ballast they will have a better time. Does Boaters World sell Flare guns??

[Buttafewcoe]

My wife coined that nomer. We we're out one day, being followed, and the Missus said "geez, they're just like files'......kinda stuck after that.
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B

[zegm]

Hopefully your wife hasn't copyrighted that term cause I think it will be used alot on Deerpoint Lake soon! I was also thinking that with a tower mabye I could fly a banner like the guys on the beach do here from the planes. I could advertise and nice wake and I could charge them a buck for a jump ??? Might help pay for the boat! But better yet get up early like we know we have to and enjoy the lake before the crowds show up.

[Schmitter]

As far as I can tell, no one else on the lake knows that the water is good until I get my boat off the lift. It is a relatively small lake with no public launch. Typically we will go to the end of the dock and make sure there are no other boats. As soon as we get the first run down the lake, there will be several boats and a bunch of jet skis messing up the water. Frustrating as heck, but what can you really do? They have as much right to use the water as we do.

[Buttafewcoe]

That's true they do have as much right to the water. It's when they create hazards and are downright rude to others when it becomes a prob.
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B

[zegm]

I once had a guy riding down the street in front of my house on a bicycle while I was towing my Big boat at about 15mph! Suddenly I hear a loud boom and looking in my rearview mirror I see him getting up from the ground right by my stopped trailer. Luckily I only ran over his bike and the sound was my tire getting puntured by his axle. He never looked behind the truck and moved right over where the bow of the boat hit him in the head and knocked him down. Now here I am towing someone 70ft behind my boat, what's to keep some idiot on a Jet Ski from not looking and crosses over to jump my wake? They should be banned from the water!!! I think they should just set up PWC lakes and not allow them anywhere near us Inboards!!!! As a matter of fact they should do that with those haulin butt bass boats too!!!! I guess the pontoon boats would be OK, I have never seen one of those go through the course!!!

[zabooda]

I have found having a cell phone and the phone number to the marine patrol works well if you have people creating an unsafe environment. It may take them awhile to get there but if you give a good description of the offenders then they will visit with them and they will advise them of the law. If they appear to be intoxicated or if they become beligerent then they tighten the screws even more. I know they bust many jetskiers for not having all of the required safety equipment on board when they do their on-the-spot safety checks. Something seems to work as the last two years I haven't had any problems with jetskiers.

[zegm]

I tried that once but after an 1 hour of waiting (on a smallish lake) the kids were getting crabby so we left. Our problem is that the ski course lays along a row of houses very close to the shore. There is one particular house that has a boat and several PWC's. On some Saturdays there are parties going on there and while you are on the course these younger kids (18-25ish) come flying out of their docks not 100yards from the course and start cutting donuts in the middle of the course while people are using it. We leave now but the last couple of times I swore they were going to hit each other. I feel pretty confident to also state that they probably are drinking while on the shore. It is a shame I have to avoid this area because it is the ONLY course on the lake! This coming season I will bring the cell phones again and because my kids will have a nice boat to sit in (not on the floor like they do in the old MC now) maybe we will get something done and actually keeps these guys from killing each other.

[zegm]

I forgot to add that if I take my big boat out of St. Andrews pass into the Gulf of Mexico I will ALWAYS see the Florida Fish and Game dudes. They always have a boat pulled over and there will be 2 or 3 of their boats out there! Now go to Deerpoint Lake which is actually a part of the Bay that has been damned up to provide fresh water to the city and I might see them 1 once a month. The problem is there are far more dangerous activities going transpirring on the Lake and they don't seem to care. I always see people drinking on the Lake doing stupid stuff. So maybe I need to call them first before I leave the house to see if they are going to be patrolling the lake first! I guess it is not quite as fun to catch someone doing something stupid on the jet ski vs. the dude who caught an illegal Goliath Grouper!!!

[YellowMoomba0]

This is the constant battle. I have never approached another boat for their lack of sharing the cove, but I have had to schmooz home owners near our course. We have offered to buy fenders for their boats and even take them skiing with us. I have thought of importing lilly pads to install near my course to give the illusion of shallow water. We ski as early as possible on weekends and usually sink the course by 10:00 am and resort to tie ups etc. Maybe I will make a bed sheet sign for the mouth of my favorite ski hole: "Sorry Folks, Cove Closed for Repairs"