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Thunder & Lightning vs. No Wake Zone


Tory1340

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Here's a question that came up on another forum - winnipesaukee.com. A regular there posted his dilemma and here is the short story. A vicious thunderstorm kicked up yesterday afternoon while he was a short distance from his dock. In order to reach his dock he has to pass through a 300 yard No Wake Zone. (In NH it's headway speed or 6 MPH). There was less than 5 second delay from lightning to thunder, ie under a mile. He slowed to approximately 7-8 MPH while motoring through, at which time a resident ran out of his house onto his dock yelling at this boater with family aboard to slow down. He responded about the lightning and the resident said "I don't care. SLOW DOWN!"

I'll hold the opinion of the majority until later, but I'm sure most of you will have the same opinion. This hits a little on the responsibility thread the other day as well as people being too uptight!

My wife says I'm cranky and would yell at the poor guy. I'll admit I yell at the bung-holes being stupid. Whistling.gif This is a different case though. Oh, a Marine Patrol citation would have been $55 if the officer pulled out his ticket book.

Anyone care to weigh in on this?

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okay, this is the exact same thing of People that buy a house on a golf course about half way down the fairway. When someone makes a mistake and hits there house, they come YELLING and screaming before the person can even apoligize or offer money to fix the problem. Some people just can't wait to yell at other people.

Love these kind of people. I would have just yelled back at the guy nicely and said "what?", "what?" until he got so frustrated he stormed back in the house. HAHAHAHAAHAH

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Here's a question that came up on another forum - winnipesaukee.com. A regular there posted his dilemma and here is the short story. A vicious thunderstorm kicked up yesterday afternoon while he was a short distance from his dock. In order to reach his dock he has to pass through a 300 yard No Wake Zone. (In NH it's headway speed or 6 MPH). There was less than 5 second delay from lightning to thunder, ie under a mile. He slowed to approximately 7-8 MPH while motoring through, at which time a resident ran out of his house onto his dock yelling at this boater with family aboard to slow down. He responded about the lightning and the resident said "I don't care. SLOW DOWN!"

I'll hold the opinion of the majority until later, but I'm sure most of you will have the same opinion. This hits a little on the responsibility thread the other day as well as people being too uptight!

My wife says I'm cranky and would yell at the poor guy. I'll admit I yell at the bung-holes being stupid. Whistling.gif This is a different case though. Oh, a Marine Patrol citation would have been $55 if the officer pulled out his ticket book.

Anyone care to weigh in on this?

Would have got the super soaker out and gave him a blast!

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Lets see $55 ticket possibly, or damage to boat, family, etc. I'll take the ticket. If there is a tower on the boat I am thinking that could be a very bad situation. I think the cop would not cite you for this and if he did you could probably fight it and win. In any case get the boat and family to safety as fast as possible

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Actually, we live in a 'No Wake" area on Sunapee and have been in similar situations over the years. On one occasion, someone put a Response up on a rock when turning out of the course. Shocking.gif Lost a fin, rudder, bent shaft, trashed prop and lots of gel coat damage. We towed it to my lift as fast as reasonable possible!

I guess that my take is that there are situations where judgment carries the day and you find yourself in a position that requires some fast thinking and you break the rules (law). My only problem is that many people take it to stupid levels and come flying in at the first rain drop. I am sure that some are inexperienced boaters and are simply in a panic. I am also sure that more often than not they are just looking for justification to get away with something.

So, my opinion is simply that it is OK for me to break the rules, but not for others! Whistling.gif

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I had this situation arise the day I put the boat in the water for the season this year. I was out on the river enjoying the day, just taking a quick run to test out the new 750 lb sac's in the trunk when all of the sudden the sky went from blue to black. I was about a mile away from the marina where we keep our boat, which lies in a cove between an island and the shore. I got about halfway there when the sky OPENED UP. The area between the island and shore is no wake and usually there are boats on people's docks. But since it was so early in the season, there were no boats on the docks, so I was hammer down the whole way in between the island and shore back to the marina. I was literally not even making a wake, but I faintly heard someone yell to slow down from their porch as I screamed by them at 40 mph.

The way I looked at it was this: I knew there were no boats on the docks, and I was getting soaked so I did what I had to to get back to the marina and get the cover on the boat. If there had been boats on the docks in the cove, I would have slowed down out of respect for them. But there was no lighting. Had there been lightning, I probably wouldn't have cared if there were boats on the dock or not.

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I say protect the kids and family first. How are you going to take kids back out on a boat if their last memory is lightning strikes around them. If you are really worried about the neighbors opinion go and talk to him/her afterwards.

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Yup! Pi$$ on the no wake zone in that situation! Depending on where you live, lightning could be a life or death situation!

...Like he (the guy who yelled) has never sped in a residential neighborhood to make it to the can without an accident....

...Patrick :blush:

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My father in law is a builder who has had the mis-fortune of having 2 of his houses catch fire due to lightning strikes. In both cases, the strikes were documented at over 100 yards away & caught everything in the area on fire - trees, work trailers, everything. If there was a godsend to any of it, it was that in both cases the houses were unoccupied because they weren't finished & that they were in relatively remote areas & there weren't any other structures around to catch. Lightning is something you absolutely don't mess with & frankly my first thought is that the guy on the dock would be lucky if I didn't come bombing in at WOT. I'd pay whatever fine, but you can bet good money that I'd take that one to court & explain to the judge the exact situation. Any reasonable person can understand that.

I do agree that there are people that panic & are inexperienced, & others that will use any excuse to break the rules. But I like to think that they're in the minority.

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Just like on the road. There's speed limit laws but if emergency warrants screw the speed limit and get to the hospital asap. Usually if a cop pulls you over in that situation you'll end up with a free high speed escort to the ER.

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Just like on the road. There's speed limit laws but if emergency warrants screw the speed limit and get to the hospital asap. Usually if a cop pulls you over in that situation you'll end up with a free high speed escort to the ER.

I always obey 5mph zones when there isn't a good reason not to. But when tahoe gets rough, F the 5mph, i'm doing whatever it takes to keep the nose up after dropping ppl at a dock. I'm not putting the bow down to not break a law!

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Just like on the road. There's speed limit laws but if emergency warrants screw the speed limit and get to the hospital asap. Usually if a cop pulls you over in that situation you'll end up with a free high speed escort to the ER.

My mom got bit on the hand by our dog* when I was 18 and I did about 60 on El Camino Real (35 MPH, 2 lanes, mostly residential) all the way to the Hospital@ 11 PM. (I don't know who was more freaked, Mom or me??)

* Dog had slipped 2 discs and was in serious pain. She was helping him pee and his back spasmed... he bit her three times in about 1/2 second.

Poor ol' Cooter. RIP Buddy!

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My father in law is a builder who has had the mis-fortune of having 2 of his houses catch fire due to lightning strikes. In both cases, the strikes were documented at over 100 yards away & caught everything in the area on fire - trees, work trailers, everything. If there was a godsend to any of it, it was that in both cases the houses were unoccupied because they weren't finished & that they were in relatively remote areas & there weren't any other structures around to catch. Lightning is something you absolutely don't mess with & frankly my first thought is that the guy on the dock would be lucky if I didn't come bombing in at WOT. I'd pay whatever fine, but you can bet good money that I'd take that one to court & explain to the judge the exact situation. Any reasonable person can understand that.

I do agree that there are people that panic & are inexperienced, & others that will use any excuse to break the rules. But I like to think that they're in the minority.

I'd have to agree, if I thougth there was a real risk of getting zapped Lightning.gif , WOT , wake is smaller going fast anyhow. I would have just ignored the whiner and motored on past.

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You guys are so predictable! Biggrin.gif Family and safety first. Exigent circumstances would most likely clear any citation, but I doubt you'd be written up anyway. He didn't say where on the big lake he was, so I don't know if WOT is an option there. This is New Hampshire and we have a fair amount of granite in the lakes. As boaters we know to seek safety. The homeowner should have recognized it too. Some went so far as suggest tying up at his dock t wait it out. And perhaps he could have invited the family to the safety of his dock and home for the storm to pass. Dontknow.gif Go drink all his refreshing beverages!

Yes, the general opinion was to take care of your family - get them to safety as reasonably as possible, even if it meant violating the NWZ, and deal with any repercussions later.

We were not on the water for the weather this weekend, but on the Harley enjoying the Laconia Bike Week festivities. We avoided the hail, but got nailed by the torrential rain. At the time there were no bridges, bank drive throughs, gas stations, nothing to hide under. Just a big tree roadside long enough to pull on the rain gear.

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We used to live in a no-wake cove on a lake in Maryland (Deep Creek Lake). The cove was riddled with stumps, but if you knew where the channel was, you were good to go. There were several times when a nasty thunderstorm brewed up were we hauled a$$ at WOT back to the dock. In the process, we had to pass by the DNR (Dept. of Nat. Resources) dock. I distinctly remember several times we slowed down (to avoid a ticket) and the DNR guys waved us on and said "Get back to the dock as quickly as possible"......Thunderstorms are nothing to mess with on an open body of water. Safety comes first, hands down. Thumbup.gif

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On this one I do agree that you need to get off the water. That said if you trash a guys boat because of your wake you do have responsibility.

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