re: Boat wreck at Smith Lake today - UPDATE three confirmed deaths

quote:

---

Markers and buoys tell a boater a lot if they know what they mean.

---

100%. I thought it was one of the more important things that the course teaches you. Though I knew most of them, its a very useful thing for everyone.

quote:

---

Running a boat at 75 mph while completely focused on electronics is not very different than driving 75 mph on the interstate while completely focused on a phone. Sure, lots of people do it. But that doesn’t make it safe. In fact, the more that do it the more dangerous it is.

---

Yea, I get that. And understand that most boats dont do 75mph. The guy on Smith that crashed was running a Nitro and was probably more in the 65 mph range if he was running wide open which is doubtful. We dont know that by the reports. Speed is dangerous but it is everywhere. Ive done high speeds plenty of times and felt pretty safe doing so. I have also been in plenty situations where driving fast would have been unsafe. No limit or rule will ever replace good judgement. The problem is, guys competing push things more than they should. IT is easy to hate on those guys if you dont do that but there are always two ways to look at things. I have seen just as many dumbasses in the bay as I did while boating on Lake Lanier for 30 years.


The problem with high speed is, one thing can happen wrong and its hard to correct or recover. Unless you have been in one of those bad situations, you dont understand that. And I have been in one bad situation that opened my eyes.


I still dont know exactly what happend on Smith. Not sure if we will ever know. I have guys I could call and find out but I have not done so. Just waiting to see if all the info gets released.

quote:

---

you don't know but could say

---

/thread

Too many unknowns.

Let the process work, if there's fault, it might not be who or how you thought it was.

quote:

---

Running big water is different than the bayous most are accustomed to running here in south LA

---

There are people here from all over. For example, I have never run a boat in Louisiana except from Venice down the river and back.

There are a LOT of people here with a lot of different experiences. Until the last couple of years most of my sea time was gained on the Atlantic or in the Gulf. I think that qualifies as pretty big water. But it doesn’t matter the size of the water, not paying attention to what is in front of you is stupid and dangerous. The faster you are going the more dangerous it is.

What certification do you have exactly? Just curious.

quote:

---

You should never operate a boat without a map. Ever, unless you know the lake like the back of your hand and even then it's not a good idea. I can't help you understand what it's like to go to lakes where you have absolutely no idea where rocks are, pipes etc etc but to suggest not using maps when running is just dumb.

---

Guess I need to ask my dad how did we ever survive those fishing trips when I was growing up before depth finders doubled as GPS map units

ETA: we did have those big laminated roll up maps for a lot of areas though

None of us know exactly why the bass boat ran slam over the center console. But unless it was malicious, and I doubt that, it seems most likely he either couldn’t see them due to a blind spot or he was distracted and not looking where he was going.

My comments about paying attention to your surroundings instead of something else are more general in nature and apply to all situations. Another little nugget I picked up from someone who’s career was captaining ships is “if you don’t know, go slow”, meaning if you are unsure about your route or what is in front of you then slow down instead of “send it”.