No Courtesy on the water.....

[Expidia]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

No need to even shout! I probably woudn't hear you over my motor noise or radio playing. Unless you are wearing a Bikini I'm not looking over at your boat anyway. So if you need help and don't look all that good in a Bikini, consider just waving one of these around and I or another boater will be right over
Don't know if distress flags are required onboard in all states, but they are in NY. Don't leave home without one!

 

[oldjeep]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Almost nobody on an inland lake would have any idea what that flag meant. Better off just waving and crossing both hands above your head.

 

[Expidia]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

I don't care who you are, or what you have, victim or rescuer. It wouldn't have taken me 30 seconds to idle over and tow in a guy in that situation. Or offer a jump. In fact I think I'd prefer to tow, as it would probably be shorter time wise. It doesn't matter if he should've had a back-up battery or whatever. How would I know that?

Ummm, that's easy enough to say when you are boating in an area that gets like 300 days of sunshine Same goes for Florida on the East Coast. But for boaters in the Northeast we have basically a 2 month season July and August when we are lucky. I experienced several seasons too that had a month of rain.

So yes, many of us are not likely to cruise on over to a guy paddling a short way away from the dock. If he's waving to me I'm usually saying to my Wife don't look over to your right

Ya sure, tell me who has not done that???

So It's one of the few beatiful days we get and I see out of the corner of my eye a jet skier waving to me . . . Hahaha Dats a Goood one! Or a Kayaker way out in the middle of the lake. Or some crapbox boat with 8 guys all holding beers and waving to me. But sadly, if they hold up a distress flag or a flare then I'm obligated by the code of us boaters and I'll be there in 30 secs. Not because I'm a good Samaritan, it's because I'd expect the same if I was in distress.

But I would not leave a dock without the ability to signal my distress.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Ya sure, tell me who has not done that???

Ignored someone trying to ask for help - nope. Don't care who or what it is, but maybe because with our previous boat we were on the recieving end of a couple of tows.
My favorite (and last) one was when our old boat engine gave up on the end of the lake opposite the launch. It was dinner time and we were the only boat on the lake I had to start swimming the boat accross to the launch. Thankfully one of the lake residents saw what was going on from their house, got into their boat and gave us a tow off the lake.

 

[Expidia]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Ignored someone trying to ask for help - nope. Don't care who or what it is, but maybe because with our previous boat we were on the recieving end of a couple of tows.
My favorite (and last) one was when our old boat engine gave up on the end of the lake opposite the launch. It was dinner time and we were the only boat on the lake I had to start swimming the boat accross to the launch. Thankfully one of the lake residents saw what was going on from their house, got into their boat and gave us a tow off the lake.

This OP did not ask for help. He was paddling his boat not that far from the dock. He was not waving his hands to other people. He was probably too embarrassed to ask for help since he knew he launched with a weak battery in the first place.

I'm not trying to beat this guy up. I'm only posting so others don't launch poorly equipped to handle most situations that will arise. A boating coarse is always a good place for anyone to start. My Wife got higher marks than I did when we both took the course like 10 years ago. Been boating for like 40 years and yet I still learned a hell of a lot investing a couple of Sat's worth of our time.

Add that to all I've gleaned off this forum since 2006 and I enjoy giving back to others, so they may not make all the same DUMB mistakes I've made over the years boating.

 

[oldjeep]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

This OP did not ask for help. He was paddling his boat not that far from the dock. He was not waving his hands to other people.

I agree - I was responding to your post where you said you were intentionally ignoring people who were waving at you.

I see out of the corner of my eye a jet skier waving to me . . . Hahaha Dats a Goood one! Or a Kayaker way out in the middle of the lake. Or some crapbox boat with 8 guys all holding beers and waving to me.

 

[mklawz]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

We were boating on the IL River a couple weekends ago. Had the engine compartment raised while using alligator clips on the battery to run air pump (since boat doesn't have a cigarette lighter receptacle). 2 boats drove by slowly asking us if we needed assistance. This thread is my chance to raise a beer to them!

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Can't comment about the bass boat, but you expect the jet boat getting ready to load onto the trailer to drop everything and come to your assistance when you are that close to shore? I like to help people but I wouldn't go out of my way in that situation. You were expecting too much.

 

[snowforfun4]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Paddling a canoe, no problem, paddling a runabout = problems. Go check on them, what is the big deal?:facepalm:

Yes, I have been towed and also received some mechanical advice via yelling questions and answers across the cove and will always pass the goodwill along.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

people like Expedia give boaters a bad name. Call sea tow 125 yards from the dock? are you serious? Who cares if you boat year round or two months, 3 1/2 minutes of your time helping someone is time well spent. Not like an hour.

And his assessment of the weak battery was a hindsight assessment. Every boater (except the perfect ones who never do anything wrong) go out hoping everything will work out. You can charge a weak battery by running it. I feel certain he didn't go out planning on the battery dying.

I hope you end up drifting against the rocks at sunset on an empty lake waving your required red flag and someone says, that's what you have cell phones for, and leaves you there. Maybe you'll get lucky and Jolin will come by, and suggest you and your wife wrap up in beach towels for your overnight stay on your disabled boat. You two deserve each other. You can float around bragging about who is more perfect.


And for the other guy--never shoot flares unless lives are in danger.

 

[JoLin]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

2 boats drove by slowly asking us if we needed assistance. This thread is my chance to raise a beer to them!

Just for the record, I bet everyone who posted to this thread would have done the same, including me. If you were in serious difficulty I'd have offered to help. Some of the disagreement here concerns the degree of help... I won't tow you. If you need a tow and can't call for one, I'll call for you. If somebody's hurt, I'll put out a call on Channel 16 and render basic first-aid assistance if I can. I'll also stick around until somebody better equipped for the emergency shows up.

If I'm in the vicinity of your Mayday call, you can bet I'm on my way to you. If I show up to find out you ran out of gas, I'll give you a bottle of fuel with a lit wick, free of charge.

 

[rheagler]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Threads like this make me wonder why I read threads like this.

 

[Lakes84]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

IMHO, I think there is no place for selfish boaters on the water, if you're not going to at-least offer a helping hand. The water is the LAST place for selfishness. In my experience, selfish boaters are few and far between in my neck of the woods. - Joe

 

[sstone]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

I like to think that if I row somebody, then they'll do the same for me. The lake I frequent isn't that large so a tow rarely takes longer than an hour. On bigger bodies of water I'd say a tow to the nearest marina is acceptable, I'm not gonna tow somebody 15 miles to their dock. On lakes/bays/etc that size I'd imagine a tow/rescue service is available. Shtuff happens, and it could happen to you. I'd rather the tow of shame than the row of misery. Then again VHF's are uncommon where I boat, and cell coverage is spotty.

 

[25thmustang]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

I guess I'm odd. I'm in new England with short seasons. I get little time out on the boat. I saw a boat with some people waving me down. Steering broke. I backed to them, we hooked a line and I brought them into the close by launch ramp dock. They were happy to have been towed, I felt good helping them out, and that afternoon i passed them on the river, as they had fixed the issue and got back on the water.

If I recognized someone in need of help I would gladly offer it! A tow isn't that bad, but maybe it's due to the fact that most guys here have smaller boats and would have a more difficult time towing someone in.

 

[Lakes84]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

I was on Lake of the Woods (huge water) and my boat completely died (wiring harness), just about half a mile from port. I have a 21 ft. 3500 lb Sport Craft. The closest resort motored out in a 12 ft Lund with a 10 horse Merc and towed us in. Just about any boat can tow a much bigger one....maybe not fast, but it sure beats a paddle!

 

[floatfan]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

I won't tow you.

Why?

 

[thinkingaboutit]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

This thread reminds me of something that my 13 year old son and I witnessed not long ago. We parked near a grocery store, and as we walked over to the store we noticed two women trying to replace a flat tire on their car. They were trying really hard to get the jack set up and going with no luck. My son and I walked over and helped them. Total time invested: 10 minutes. One of the women said they had been working on that for more than 20 minutes and no one had offered to help them.

I guess what you experienced with your boat is just a reflection of what passes for courtesy these days. Kinda sad, actually.

 

[jkust]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

Probably 10 years ago, the last time I ever encountered a boater in distress, I stopped and towed this much larger boat all the way back to their house. They had 13 people on the boat and readily admitted that they knew the boat wasn't usable but went out anyway and they even had a little baby with them. Suffice it to say, they were happy but the heavy boat cracked the transome of the boat I was using only discovered back at the dock.

I'm of two minds If I ever saw another boater in distress. The OP mentioning that he went out with a sub par battery makes me wonder why you would tempt fate.

 

[Maclin]

Re: No Courtesy on the water.....

I have been asked many times when I was just drifting to rest or have the kids swim if I was ok, it felt really good. I have also gone out to other boats that were just sittng and if I could not see any fishing poles or kids swimming etc. I would get close enough to ask if they were ok.

Regarding towing, on one occasion we were approached at the beach by a boater wanting a tow to the ramp, this was a very small lake, one direction skiing, that kind of thing. We did that, but man, never again, pretty sloppy slow going. And I figured it would be just him in the boat but after we got hooked up his whole family went in. Next time if I can't get everyone in my boat safely and raft them up along side I will just take one of them for help or run an errand like getting more fuel or whatever we can do. Towing can be unsafe, you do not know what the other boat or boater is going to do.