Beware of boaters

[Gilldiver]

On a slightly more serious note (assuming that was intended to be slightly humerous ):

Does anyone have experience with floating long tag lines and having some idiot buzzing the dive boat getting his prop fouled? This could be a nice 'training' measure, but I'm wondering if anyone has actually ever seen or heard of it happening. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't help with jet skis, unless maybe you used lots of small logs as floats for the tag line.

Do you think I was jokeing? For jet skis put a 4 or 5 oz sinker on the end of the line and get extra points for a head shot.

I have an 25mm brass ex Brit Navy flare pistol that works for larger boats. There is just nothing like the look on a slightly or very, drunk weekend boater when that big red ball of flame goes by his head. I have never put one into a boat, but I have been very tempted.

 

[Oside Jimc]

Jet Skis, the bane of my life. Had a bunch come up the wake of my boat as we were coming into Oceanside Harbor. All made a pass through to jump my wake. Last ski (with 14 year old girl driving) almost rear ends the boat, then as she went over the wake she fell off and the ski hooks right into the starboard side of my boat! :11:

Insult to injury, Dad (first in the group of skis) accuses me of "cutting off his daughter" and is having a total @$$ fit. So harbor police takes a report, unfortunatly for him life guards on the jetty had seen everything and reported it on the radio, so as soon as Dad signed the complaint, the police cited his for filing a false police report.

 

[ChrisA]

On a slightly more serious note (assuming that was intended to be slightly humerous ):

Does anyone have experience with floating long tag lines and having some idiot buzzing the dive boat getting his prop fouled? This could be a nice 'training' measure, but I'm wondering if anyone has actually ever seen or heard of it happening. Unfortunately, it probably wouldn't help with jet skis, unless maybe you used lots of small logs as floats for the tag line.

I've always thought that divers could completely cure this problem if they let on that dive flags always have long floating lines attached to them. We should all go out and buy 50 feet of polypro line. No boater wants to run over a line.

 

[Doll_Fin]

I suddenly have this strange overwhelming desire to read Jimmy Buffett's "Where is Joe Merchant" again after reading this thread!

 

[Gilldiver]

Jet Skis, the bane of my life. Had a bunch come up the wake of my boat as we were coming into Oceanside Harbor. All made a pass through to jump my wake. Last ski (with 14 year old girl driving) almost rear ends the boat, then as she went over the wake she fell off and the ski hooks right into the starboard side of my boat! :11:

Insult to injury, Dad (first in the group of skis) accuses me of "cutting off his daughter" and is having a total @$$ fit. So harbor police takes a report, unfortunatly for him life guards on the jetty had seen everything and reported it on the radio, so as soon as Dad signed the complaint, the police cited his for filing a false police report.

Happend a few times up around here. It is OK if the idiot falls away from the boat, but if they fall toward the boat there is a very good chance that they could end up in the screws. Then you are in a world of hurt for lawers, insurance, etc.

That is why if we see a few jet skies running around near the inlet we may put a few lines off the boat. No hooks, just lines with something to make a splash at the end. Most idiots will figure out that there may be hooks and go to the next boat.

 

[tstormdiver]

The "keep xxx meters away from a boat with dive flag" stuff is strictly local laws. In most juridictions that do have such laws, the requirement is not a total prohibition, and an approaching boat can pass near the flag if going at slow speed.

Unfortunately this yo yo wasn't going anything near slow when he passed directly over our group.

 

[Oside Jimc]

Happend a few times up around here. It is OK if the idiot falls away from the boat, but if they fall toward the boat there is a very good chance that they could end up in the screws. Then you are in a world of hurt for lawers, insurance, etc.

That was what I was worried about, she almost went into the outboard, gelcost can be fixed, but a 14 year old girl in the prop, no way there's going to be a happy ending to that story.

That is why if we see a few jet skies running around near the inlet we may put a few lines off the boat. No hooks, just lines with something to make a splash at the end. Most idiots will figure out that there may be hooks and go to the next boat.

Next time I'll put out the Marlin jigs, complete with BIG hooks. Go big or go home, that's my motto.

 

[Frank W]

I've often been diving off my own or chartered boats in lakes and the coastal ocean and at this point I feel qualifed to say that regardless of using either or both the Alpha or DiaStripe dive flags, about 10% of boaters seem DRAWN to the flag. It really comes down to not trusting the flag...but always using caution when making your final 10' to the surface...listen, look and don't loiter on the surface any distance away from the boat if at all possible. If I am on the surface and ANY boat traffic is nearby... I use it as a good oppertunity to drill on using my surface marker.

One more tidbit: I had one occasion we where in the Ft. Lauderdale area doing a drift dive and left my 17' center console Whaler unattended (wife and I were below), flying the dive flag...another boater came up right next to our boat...actually from below looked like they were close enough to board. We started up from about 50' and the other boat left. We could see it was not a marked FL Marine Police of other marked law enforcement (the water is that clear). We figured it was a 50/50% split between someone checking on us with good intentions, or someone looking to make a quick grab off the boat. By the time we made it up to surface, they had split. Makes you think....cut the drift line, keys are in the ignition, and they would have had my boat and we would have been surface drifting up to Boca Raton!

Be safe,

Frank W.

 

[Dan Diver]

We had been diving for several hours from our boat in a cove on an inland lake. We had 4 dive flags in the area we were diving. While diving be kept hearing jet ski's (pick your brand name of choice) overhead seaming to be WAY to damned close. Luckily we were diving and anchored not far from the shore. A couple of us swan just off the bottom and surfaced at the shoreline. Upon surfacing we saw no one around. During our surface interval I decided to surface swim back out to the boat and make sure everything was all right. We had left one of the gals onboard because she didn't dive (poor gal), it turns out the nice sunshine had magically cause her to fall asleep on the sundeck and she did not feel like waking up. She told us about seeing 4 jet ski's running in and out of the cove, she yelled at them and they left. Good girl. What she slept thru was them returning and using our dive flags for a slalom course.
A few minutes later they returned and were on their slalom course again. I asked them to stay away form the dive flags, but received a reply via a single extended finger. I called the lake patrol and in less than 5 minutes they were on site (they had been called in by another boater who saw they fine young men earlier). The lake cops redioed me back and told me they were outside the cove observing the action. Withing a coiuple of minutes 3 lake patrol boats arrived and had a short chat. The lake patrol was very courteous to these boys. They recieved free rides in the new state owned boats, the lake cops even were nice enough to have someone pick up the rental jet ski's saving the guys the hastle of staning in line and returning them. Man the boys didn't even have to fill the fuel tanks back up. They even got to donate $750 each to the coffers of the state of Missouri.
Believe it or not they claimed they did not they were doing anything wrong. As stated earlir=er in many posts here and other places, got cash get boat (or jet ski).

 

[mohave_steve]

I once had a jetskier doing doughnuts around my dive flag. When jetskis first came out on the market I thought they were cool but now I hate them. I wonder if I would be liable if my bangstick accidentaly fired into a jetski? Maybe I could start a new sport, jetski hunting. Use the dive flag to lure the jet ski close enough and then...

If they opened season on jetski's the hunting here would be PRIME! You joke about using a dive flag to attract them. I can tell you from personal experience IT WORKS!

Seriously, I found myself conversing with a group of powerboaters/jetskiers at a local marina. They were waiting for NPS to open the boat launch after our Ecology Dive.
One of the baoters asked why the launch was closed & I explained about the Ecology Dive and pointed out the dive flag. In the conversation that followed it became clear that NONE of the 8-10 boaters knew what the dive flag was or that they were required to stay 200' away.

I could go on & on with stories about reckless, ignorant & rude behaviour I have seen on our local lakes & river. How about we start requiring a minimum education & skills demonstration from poerboaters. We could issue a card showing that they had completed the requirements and insist that they show the card before they could fill thier (gas) tanks?