Watercraft Conflicts Getting Personal
Personal watercraft the industry acronym is PWC also have names like Jet Ski or Wave Rider plus others of a disparaging nature. These whizzy little boats are detested by sailors (among others) for a variety of reasons, one of which may be envy.
They threaten old ways, suggesting there may not be room enough on a body of water for the new and the tried and true. Furthermore, a prototype lawsuit about their legality is shaping up in the state of Washington, one the Supreme Court may have to decide.
The PWC, as the vessels shall be designated here, came on the boating scene about two decades ago and at first were regarded as a toy that would soon go away. They have not, becoming instead the biggest growth item in the entire boating lineup.
These fiberglass craft, jet-propelled by gasoline engines, are quick, noisy and expensive. The current Kawasaki line, in stand-up and sit-down models, runs from $5,000 to $8,000.
The PWC drivers skippers or captains would be too refined a title - are for the most part youths who often have little regard for the conventional rules of the road and other safety practices prized by their elders.
They dart about, often towing an occupied knee board, a tube or a ski. Everyone is wet - but this is fun. That’s where the envy comes into play.
Paint a picture often to be repeated in the forthcoming boating season on bay, harbor, lake or river. A fleet of racing sailboats is becalmed but patient while awaiting a new breeze.
Here come a quartet of PWC, zooming about like gnats or bees. The wakes rock the sailboats, infuriating the skippers, who scream at the alleged intruders.
The yelling goes unheard. The PWC makes too much noise.
Experiences like these became frequent enough in Washington’s San Juan County, whose 172 islands lie in the Strait of Georgia north of Seattle, that the three county commissioners banned use of all PWC. No more, they said.
The National Marine Manufacturers Association countered with a petition seeking a reversal on behalf of PWC manufacturers and dealers. The NMMA lawyers say this is the most stringent PWC ordinance in the United States, and it violates clauses of the state constitution protecting unlimited access to waterways.
The NMMA adds it is concerned lest other counties hand down ordinances of a similar nature against boats “considered unacceptable.” An article in The New York Times suggested the controversy “may be the recreational equivalent of smoking vs. non-smoking in public places.”
The primary problem is the penetrating whine these little craft produce. Yet an NMMA spokesman claims they are “no noisier than a vacuum cleaner.”
But the PWC industry is defensive enough to have compiled a model safety act “to help guide would-be state and local regulators.”
There are several basic suggestions such as life jackets for PWC users, minimum age of 16 for operators and no night riding. Another recommendation: “PWC must at all times be operated in a reasonable and prudent manner.” Oh sure.
In a tactical move to credit its product, the PWC industry says it has for the past three years made available 1,000 such craft to marine safety people engaged in enforcing boating laws. This equates the PWC to the high-speed highway patrol car.
Another sea bag opens. Boating laws per se have never worked very well in this country and therefore are not numerous.
A driver’s license for boat operators has often been considered by waterway states but never adopted - and the NMMA is against such regulation.
The tradition of freedom of the sea, and self-regulation based on common sense, has prevailed instead. Now the two seem lacking because boats go too fast.
When those two Cleveland Indians baseball pitchers were killed a few years ago, their outboard hit a dock at 40 miles per hour in the dark on a small Florida lake.
Glance at a boating ad in a magazine and it is all about speed. “This mother hauls,” reads a Kawasaki PWC advertisement in Yachting, formerly a sedate publication for yachtsmen who regarded 10 nautical miles per hour as flying.
“It’s a blast to ride,” continues the ad copy. “743ccs of raw power….Leave the rest of the world behind….You can’t run away from your problems but you can grab the throttle and leave them bobbing helplessly in your wake.”
Nonsense.
High speeds afloat create problems rather than liquidate them. The water becomes hard as cement and the wind rips at one’s eyeballs. Why not a leisurely San Juan islands cruise - bereft of the PWC?
xxxx