Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Holy crap! I've been on the water for 40 years and I have never witnessed as much brutal boat driving in my entire life! I am amazed nobody was killed!

At one point I sat back and took count... literally 3 out of every 4 boaters were driving like complete crap! At one point there were 4 boats going in the same direction thru a channel that's all of about 5 boats wide - total!!!!! AROUND A TURN!!!!!!!! (So if there were ANY boats coming the other way, somebody was dieing.)

I ran into stupid boat drivers as well. Leaving Cross Timbers on Keystone lake after dancing at around 11:00 PM, I pull out of the cove where the marina is and of course its pitch dark out. Not sure how the other boat couldnt see us. I have full length LED's all my nav lights on and a Disco Ball. He literally missed us by 5 feet and he was running wide open into the no wake zone. My wife noticed he was turning around talking to his passengers 2 seconds before turning around and swerving left, I of course came to a complete stop or It could have been bad. Pull your head out people. Its life or death for F*!$'s sake.

Cycleman07 wrote: Pull your head out people. Its life or death for F*!$'s sake.

AMEN! That's what I told my wife! For people to pull what I witnessed was shocking. They are so stupid, instead of predicting what might happen, they were all assuming what wouldn't! Honestly, it was the type of thing were if one boat driver misread another boat, it would have been somebody getting killed! For God's sake... what the hell kind of an idiot assumes there's NOT a boat coming there way around a corner???!??!

I am just totally amazed at this crap! Two boats traveling towards each other...there is no time to react! What's really sad, I shut my kids down for the weekend and wouldn't even let them even drive the jet skis in that area of the chain.

One problem is....They all think they have the right of way.
My weekend weather sucked so I only got out on Sunday for a couple hours. Sure enough..."They were out there". Had one guy going diagonal across the channel from my port side at about 5 mph. He was sitting sideways at the helm so he could talk to the people in his boat. Never once looked behind him or to his right. It was like walking into an intersection without looking.

evinrude2stroke wrote:One problem is....They all think they have the right of way.
My weekend weather sucked so I only got out on Sunday for a couple hours. Sure enough..."They were out there". Had one guy going diagonal across the channel from my port side at about 5 mph. He was sitting sideways at the helm so he could talk to the people in his boat. Never once looked behind him or to his right. It was like walking into an intersection without looking.

Exactly... I was driving thru a narrow channel about 200 feet wide... and all of a sudden I look to my right and some d-bag is coming up along side of me!!!! There were 5 boats in front of me and I had no place to go...where did this asspipe think he was going to go???!?!!
...so he proceeds to drive along side of me, forcing me to either give him room or crash!!!! It was a complete nightmare. problem is... with the wake being where it was ...I would imagine if the wake throws me into him...I would have been at fault!

Knowing the "rules of the road" is only one part of safe boating. Assuming no one else does will most likely save you some headaches, if not your boat and/or you life.
I try to drive both my boat and car defensively. The problem being on the water is that there are usually no driving lanes and many people never bother to read about etiquette and safe operation of a boat and think everyone else has to give way to them.
Add in a little alcohol and watch out!

Didn't even get on the water this weekend--

Labor Day, July Fourth, and Memorial Day are "No Lake" days for me.

I didn't either. Working a plant turn-around... 13 days on, 1 off, 12 hour shifts. started June 15th and ends Oct 15th. So, that's how I spent my summer, guys! I have been on the water 3 times since our last visit to LotO.

I boat 5 days a week----Monday thru Friday----and no holidays----just for the reasons stated. I haven't launched my boats for almost 10 years now on weekends or holidays. Too many do not understand the rules of the road, common courtesy, and just common sense. Cars, boats, whatever...too many are concerned with "me" and no one else. I find myself more and more feeling that I need to comment on this "self absorption" at the ramp and the idiots that I encounter there. I rarely have any problems with the older crowd, unless they are new to boating, but those younger are often a different story.