Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

[bonz_d]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

. That really surprised me... I've always seen 10 mph limit at night ... usually only ignored by fishermen.

Really Kev? Most times that I'm in the boat I'm fishing and all the local lakes here are "No Wake" after sunset! And I'm pretty sure that even with a strong wind "No Wake" is less than 10mph!

 

[QC]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

Despite my comments I also typically run around 18 - 20 MPH at night. With trim tabs I have a very comfortable cruise at those speeds. Good view and slow enough that I feel more control. BTW, 10 MPH would suck on most of our boats. Poor visibility over the bow, big wake, etc.

 

[JoshOnt]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

I have a small boat so I don't run on big lakes with it but when I do boat at night I tend to stay just over cruise speed. Fast enough that I am not wasting fuel but still safe.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

a 10 mph limit doesn't mean you have to travel at 10 mph... 5-7 is just fine too

 

[QC]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

Oh.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

Really Kev? Most times that I'm in the boat I'm fishing and all the local lakes here are "No Wake" after sunset! And I'm pretty sure that even with a strong wind "No Wake" is less than 10mph!

CERTAINLY not ALL fishermen..... Generally around here tho the most common high speed boat after dark is a bass rocket doing 60 mph in pitch black trying to make it to the dock for weigh in... Some of those guys are downright criminal..... Again tho I don't mean to say all of em. Most fisherman like most other boaters are fine.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

True, but again, you're talking about reducing speed strictly because of probably less than 1 in a million chance that someone has capsized a boat and is also in the path of your boat at night? I'm not saying it wouldn't be tragic if it did happen, but you can't expect rules to be made to attempt to mitigate that particular risk. The primary risk, is a boat running into another boat, whether or not the lights are on is somewhat irrelevant). You won't see kids in a canoe out on the main lake where people are running up to 30mph. Maybe some small protected cove, but you'd have a death wish to try and cross a lake like LOTO at night in a boat that small.

No not at all... I'm not talking about lowering the speed limit at all... I originally said I was SURPRISED it was so high because I have always seen 10 mph limits at night and because in my opinion 30 mph is too fast to boat at night 90% of the time.... I gave a few examples that came to mind but I certainly wouldn't consider that to be an exclusive list.

My point is that most of the time 30 mph at night isn't safe and the percentage of risk is not relevant....

If you wanted to talk about MADE UP statistics tho, If it really WAS 1 in a million and there were say 200 million boating excursions each year in the USA then that law would likely prevent 200 likely fatal accidents..... I'd say that the average is much higher than 1 in a million and that there are way way more than 200 million boat trips each year tho.......

Of course these, like yours, are just made up statistics and as such have no merit whatsoever.

You'd have to have a death wish to swim in navigable waters of the Ohio river in the dark too but I once noticed something white in front of me... looked like a plastic grocery bag but it moved and caught my eye.... It was a swim cap.... There was a swimmer doing distance swimming at night between towhead island and the Kentucky shore.... I've not seen kids in a canoe in the dark but I have seen several kayaks... it looked like they were holding up cell phones for nav lights.

 

[QC]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

Better yet, no trans channel swimming at night.

 

[Wind dog]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

CERTAINLY not ALL fishermen..... Generally around here tho the most common high speed boat after dark is a bass rocket doing 60 mph in pitch black trying to make it to the dock for weigh in... Some of those guys are downright criminal..... Again tho I don't mean to say all of em. Most fisherman like most other boaters are fine.

A jet skier complaining about fishermen. LMAO

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

Better yet, no trans channel swimming at night.

I absolutely agree... should be arrested for something so stupid but I still don't wanna run em over.

A jet skier complaining about fishermen. LMAO

You are way off base... I happen to BE a fisherman....and a jetskier and a boater and a canoer and a kayaker and a jeeper and a horse rider and pretty much anything else I can get into outdoors The point I was TRYING to make is that other than the minority group of tournament fishermen who drive like idiots I almost never see anyone going fast at night.....

 

[haulnazz15]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

My point is that most of the time 30 mph at night isn't safe and the percentage of risk is not relevant....

If you wanted to talk about MADE UP statistics tho, If it really WAS 1 in a million and there were say 200 million boating excursions each year in the USA then that law would likely prevent 200 likely fatal accidents..... I'd say that the average is much higher than 1 in a million and that there are way way more than 200 million boat trips each year tho.......

Of course these, like yours, are just made up statistics and as such have no merit whatsoever.

If you take notice I intentionally used the word "PROBABLY" in order to emphasize that it wasn't a factual statistic. I would be willing to bet that the risk of your scenario (hitting a capsized boat in the dark on LOTO because you were going 30mph instead of 10mph) is less than one in a million. As much water as there is, and the remote possibility that a boat capsizes in the first place, at night, would start making the chances of that event occurring so remote as to be almost inconceivable. Again, not impossible by any means, but extremely unlikely. This isn't the river, where everyone is traveling along common paths with lots of traffic up and down the river. It's a lake that has boats traveling all different manner of directions across over 80 square miles of water.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

80 square miles.... I thought loto was much much bigger than that..... either way I think it's too fast to see someone in front of you and you think nobody should be in front of you so you don't NEED to see em..... pretty sure we aren't gonna agree on this one and I stand by my earlier statement that I have no interest in ever visiting that lake as long at the speeds are allowed to remain as they are.... At least that'll be one less 30' cruiser in your way

 

[southkogs]

Re: Water Patrol - BWI Tactics?

...BTW, 10 MPH would suck on most of our boats. Poor visibility over the bow, big wake, etc.

I wouldn't really advocate 10MPH at night, or even no wake. But 30 seems high to me.

I don't think they have a clue about the size of LOTO. At 10 MPH it would only take around 9 hours to travel the 92 mile length of the Osage branch of the lake...

No so. LOTO is a little over double the size of the bigger lake that I go on (LOTO at 54,000 acres and Center Hill at 18,000 acres). Priest is smaller (11,000 acres I think) but far more congested. Runnin' on either is much like LOTO - shoreline, structure, channel, etc.

... The size of boats there, many of them don't plane out until 25+ My express cruiser you can't see a thing until the bow comes down and doing 10 mph on something that size just isn't realistic.

Of course you can do 10MPH on a cruiser. It's very realistic, but not convenient. Much like flying, boating requires advanced planning to take into account course and speed - especially at night. (I'm not suggesting you don't know, understand or employ any of what I've just said BTW. I'm just suggesting your statement is a little inaccurate.) If you can only make 10MPH on a certain leg of the trip ... you plan for it.

All that said: I was actually surprised that TN doesn't have an "after dark" provision for boat speed, but I can't find one anywhere. There is a (rather vague) statement about unsafe operation in "limited visibility situations," but doesn't suggest any speed limit anywhere. Assuming the same is true on LOTO, I'll retract what I said earlier. The LEO shouldn't have been so close in based on speed.