The Too-Common Boating Blunders

by Peter J. Wihtol

There is a problem now being seen at the larger, more-upscale marinas. There are a number of people buying 40-50 foot power boats who do not have the slightest idea of how to handle them, particularly in tight areas or bad conditions.
These people are attempting to bring their boats into the narrow channels at marinas and then turn into the assigned slip. While doing this, they bash into other large, expensive causing a lot of damage.
The stories of people who have attempted to navigate their newly purchased larger boats with road maps are true. More amazing is that they have been able to travel long distances without having had an accident. In one case the editor of our newsletter gave directions and an older chart to a man with his children and his uncomfortable-looking wife. He was bringing his brand new 35 foot cigarette boat from NYC to Boston. He had traveled from NYC to about half-way through Buzzard's Bay, using only a road map, showing neither navigational aids nor shallow spots. Additionally, he was unaware that he could save 135 miles of travel by using the safer and shorter Cape Cod Canal route.
A boating accident investigator told us the story of a man who ran his forty-foot power boat aground while using a paper restaurant place mat. It showed the land and the water, but no buoys, shoals or water depths. His running aground wrecked his engines, transmissions, drive shafts, props, and severely damaged his boat's bottom.
Ego, gross stupidity and worse. One boater who really should have known better (he had actually taken a boating safety course) was traveling without charts. He told us that he did not need them and did not care because:
1. This boat was financed to the hilt (basically the bank owned it all).
2. He had tons of insurance coverage. We have not heard anything about him for a number years, his place of business has been long empty and he is "whereabouts unknown." Some of us who read the local newspaper are guessing that he could be on vacation for "five-to-ten" years.
There are other boat owners at this extreme end of the spectrum. My sons, who used to work summers in Scituate Harbor, tell me that are owners who keep their boats in their slips all summer, never leaving their slips. These boats only serve as summer cabins in this picturesque harbor. Some of these boats have nonworking engines. A few have no engines at all. One person at a local marina has a marina employee take his boat out of the slip and out of the harbor. A chase boat picks up the employee outside of the harbor, and the owner drives his boat around Massachusetts Bay for several hours. He then returns to the harbor entrance and radios for the "pilot boat" to meet them. The employee hops back aboard and pilots the boat into the slip. Apparently the marina employee gets paid and rather well along with a big tip for all of this.