Let down by a Yamaha Owner

[Peter simon]

In NC on Lake Wylie it was crazy this weekend. Boat sales are up and inexperienced boaters and PWC everywhere. I had one of those annoying wake surf boats gaining on me and the bow was so high up the driver could not see me and it was a narrow crowded stretch. The DNR has these new enforcement boats and we passed one going the other way and he spun around with his lights on in a second and stopped him.

Thankfully most of the new boats i saw by my ramp were Bass pro Shop special pontoons which are slow but they did clog up the ramps. I have never had to trailer a pontoon but it doesnt look like fun.

 

[bthessel]

ya, the lakes are crazy right now with new boaters and on Lake Cumberland I have heard the marinas are basically fully booked for rental boats for the rest of the summer. Those barge like rental pontoons don't have much of a motor but when they come by with 20 people on them at speed they create a pretty good wake. We have pretty much avoided the popular spots on Saturdays and avoid tubing and such in main lake areas. The other thing we are seeing a lot of this year that we haven't in the past is a lot of kayaks and even people swimming in parts of the lake you didn't in the past. The other week I came around a bend in a narrow part of the lake to find like 15 people swimming and floating on cheap plastic floats in the middle of the channel. This is a part of the lake that most people are moving pretty fast as there are no ramps or coves and it is pretty narrow. Everyone be safe out there.

 

[fvcoachv]

Boy you guys would really be PO'd if you boated on a river, you have to be very aware of everything. Yesterday was busy on the river and there were actually idiots swimming in the middle of the river and they were nearly impossible to see. I hardly ever see anyone put their hand up after falling. On top of that you have to dodge debris. And then you have the drunkin idiots to deal with.

So true. The worst area like this in my area is Laughlin, NV across from the casinos. Worst water etiquette I’ve ever seen. Jet ski rentals, groups swimming out to far, all combined with shallow water. It’s an obstacle course.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Soon as kids are out and in college, I am ready to move down to the ocean with more space to boat. Although I am sure that comes with its own challenges.

 

[BigN8]

My buddy and I used to have this problem often. We always rafted up together in the same cove. Our solution.....water balloon slingshot. We had the large three person sling shot but also has a small hand held sling shot that would launch water balloons. Always kept a small supply of small water balloons at the ready. Wife would video the culprit to document the violation and we would start firing water balloons!

 

[WiskyDan]

As a guy that likes to fish, I get it giving dirty looks. However I always told myself that "if I'm going to fish in the middle of a channel on a busy day, there's going to be some waves."

Forgot to mention that I get looks while the boat is still in no wake mode. I actually stay in no wake mode longer than I need to in order to be as respectful as possible.

 

[TS4811]

Isn’t this what the flair gun is for?

 

[OCMD]

I don't know how you all do it, dealing with all the ass clowns on the water. (Ass clowns - a great descriptor. I thought we only used this in football officiating, another avocation filled with AC's) If I had to deal with those crowds I'd sell my boat, as I have zero patience for these idiots. I am glad I have my private river! Father's Day and nary a boat on the water!

 

[biglar155]

I should just bookmark this thread and use it as my stock answer to why I outright refuse to boat on summer holidays and prefer to not boat on weekends.

I see two major problems out on the water: The folks that failed to educate themselves and the folks that just don't care. Sometimes the difference is difficult to perceive.

The folks that fail to educate themselves will do better if we try to guide them and encourage further education. I'm not sure what we can do with the folks that just don't care.

Of course there's the group that I consider myself a member of: We've educated ourselves and we're trying but we do make mistakes.

My advice: Stay calm and - more importantly - stay vigilant. I'm in "condition yellow" at all times when my boat is on the water. Even when we're anchored out in Lake Poygan (which has miles of room and is a "out of the way" of the main traffic patterns on the Butte des Morts chain) and I'm 'napping' up in the bow, I keep my ears open and take a peak when I hear another boat. I don't truly relax my guard until I pull the boat out at the ramp.

I know that some of you folks boat in very busy areas where another boat passing within 100 yards is commonplace and I don't envy you one bit.

 

[HangOutdoors]

@biglar155 Unfortunately with busy work schedules we get out mostly on the weekends but try to sneak in a Wednesday late afternoon. Perhaps when I retire I will be fortunate enough to go during the week more, but that is at least 15 years off.

 

[anmut]

I should just bookmark this thread and use it as my stock answer to why I outright refuse to boat on summer holidays and prefer to not boat on weekends.

I see two major problems out on the water: The folks that failed to educate themselves and the folks that just don't care. Sometimes the difference is difficult to perceive.

The folks that fail to educate themselves will do better if we try to guide them and encourage further education. I'm not sure what we can do with the folks that just don't care.

Of course there's the group that I consider myself a member of: We've educated ourselves and we're trying but we do make mistakes.

My advice: Stay calm and - more importantly - stay vigilant. I'm in "condition yellow" at all times when my boat is on the water. Even when we're anchored out in Lake Poygan (which has miles of room and is a "out of the way" of the main traffic patterns on the Butte des Morts chain) and I'm 'napping' up in the bow, I keep my ears open and take a peak when I hear another boat. I don't truly relax my guard until I pull the boat out at the ramp.

I know that some of you folks boat in very busy areas where another boat passing within 100 yards is commonplace and I don't envy you one bit.

Agreed, and you being from WI know that along with the shorter boating season, comes the influx of idiots. It's especially high this year for all the aforementioned reasons.

 

[anmut]

@biglar155 Unfortunately with busy work schedules we get out mostly on the weekends but try to sneak in a Wednesday late afternoon. Perhaps when I retire I will be fortunate enough to go during the week more, but that is at least 15 years off.

Remember the daylight is already growing shorter as of last Saturday. I highly recommend making short post-work trips a thing if you can. Ramps are less full, it helps with the coming down from work, and it keeps my family off the $@%#%$ screens for the night.

 

[HangOutdoors]

@anmut I agree and we hope to, but the Admiral works in Healthcare specifically Cancer and I work In Information Technology and run global teams so we put it a lot of long and weird hours. On a good note, I heard a lottery story on the radio today that this guy hit 4 million twice in three years. Got me all amped up. When I pulled into the 7 Eleven I got some lottery tickets. Keeping fingers crossed. Then we are moving south to the Ocean if it works out. Gonna upgraded to a 242 or 275 then.

 

[ZippyBoater]

Has anyone else experienced a quieter boating scene this past weekend? As the states of Virginia and North Carolina are opening up again we noticed a much less crowded lake than previous weekends.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Now that you mention it the launch site was not full at 5:30 pm when we were coming off the lake. Still alot of stupid going on, but spots were oopen.

 

[Babin Farms]

Has anyone else experienced a quieter boating scene this past weekend? As the states of Virginia and North Carolina are opening up again we noticed a much less crowded lake than previous weekends.

Here in Illinois we "might" get to quieter boating scene by next summer if we're lucky. Still busy as I've ever seen it week after week around here.

 

[Theryan]

Something like tha OP is all too common. Not another boat in sight other than you and someone passing within 50’ or less, pulling a tube or skier and having another boat follow right behind you or having multiple boats coming at you taking up the whole body of water leaving you no option other than to just stop. Most of it is just not knowing any better but some of it is they just don’t care. I tell my wife to be prepared to take evasive action while driving because most on the water don’t pay attention. Last week had a boat coming right at us, we avoided being hit but it was a boatload of younger guys all looking down on their phones not paying attention to where they were going until they hit our wake. Biggest thing I preach is “pay attention”
Hope everyone enjoys their Fathers Day and has a great time on the water.

The amount of people that I see out there driving their boat and not paying attention is astounding. I barely even talk to people when I'm fully underway in my boat, and constantly have my eyes darting around to keep an eye on everything.

 

[biglar155]

@biglar155 Unfortunately with busy work schedules we get out mostly on the weekends but try to sneak in a Wednesday late afternoon. Perhaps when I retire I will be fortunate enough to go during the week more, but that is at least 15 years off.

I hear you. Like many I struggle to get on-the-water time. I have a situation of somewhat normal hours but a lot of off-hour call-ins to support production.

That said, if I wake up one morning with an empty schedule, many times I can "burn a day" and hit the water. So my boating is normally done on very short notice.

 

[Trevor Shipman]

That's something I tell my passengers to do. Hands up if you fall off the tube. Board up if you fall off a board. And I don't care if it's hard to put the board back on in the water or not.

This is the standard! Every time you fall you must immediately find a way to be more visible.

 

[bolivas]

On our usual lake, we too have a huge influx of newbies. The lake is decent sized w/ many areas along the perimeter to drop anchor to chill and float around the boat, but this year there seems to be a plethora of dipshits not utilizing the perimeter to drop anchor.

This year it seems as if every one just drops anchor wherever they feel like it, no matter that they are smack dab in the middle of the normal flow of traffic. So now we have tons of obstacles everywhere. It makes it hard to board or tube when all of these jackasses are anchored down everywhere all over the place instead of pulling off to the perimeter before dropping anchor.

What makes matters worse is when they throw you dirty looks and throw their hands in the air for creating a wake "near" them. 99% of the time the perimeter is wide open to pull off and drop anchor and still have plenty of room/privacy between boats. I have always pulled off to the edges and out of the way when my family wants to stop for lunch or just float around.

I had to laugh last week. There was a guy (one of many) in the way and anchored down and was grilling their lunch ON the swim deck. I was pulling my son on the wake board and another dipshit (they must multiply in the water) was going the opposite direction of travel and coming at us leaving me nowhere to go to give room to the other dipshit grilling ON the swim deck (anchored down in the middle of the cruising path). I didn't want to stop and dunk my son in fear of having him get run over by the dipshit going the wrong way, so I held my course and honked at them to get their attention. They finally changed course (barely) enough to not collide with us, but then he threaded the needle between us and the other dipshit grilling lunch. Their wake then caused the other boat to toss about, enough to have their "Captain" lose his balance and fall off of the swim deck and took his grill (and lunch) into the lake with him.

We kept an eye on him and made sure he surfaced and was ok. This also caused my son to drop the rope and he got dunked anyway. I turned around to retrieve my son and then we pulled up near the soaked and hungry boat full of people to check on them. Their "Captain" thought it would be appropriate to lash out at me..... Let's just say he picked the wrong guy to lash out at. I "educated" him that had he pulled off to the perimeter to anchor down for lunch, this would have prevented this from happening. I also reminded him that it was not my boat going in the wrong direction nor my boat that caused the wake to toss him overboard. I felt bad (sort of) because he had his wife and kids with him, but I refuse to be yelled at for something that was not my doing. Hell, I am the guy who came and checked on them and was offering help if needed.....

IDGAF if my wake bothers them anymore. If they are going to drop anchor right in the main path of travel, they are going to catch the wake. Don't like the rough waters, move to the perimeter or stay off the water......