[Rhodes22-list] Connecticut Outlaws Sailing

[The Rhodes 22 Email List]

Not only the young, out of work. I see lots of 
middle aged idiots on the water. (The "hey watch 
this!" crowd and the totally oblivious crowd.)
We have had problems here in MD with CG and DNR 
mis-interpretation of the rules for sailboat 
operation. Don't know how they've all been 
resolved. that aid the more education the better.

Back when we first got our R22, we took a CG Aux 
sailboat-oriented intro to boating course in 
Philadelphia. We learned a lot even though we had 
been been sailing for about 10 years when we took 
it. We were mostly self taught and all sorts of 
little things that we had never thought about 
came up. It did have the PWC element which 
covered certification in PA. When we moved to MD, 
we found that MD would accept our certificates 
though technically, we didn't need them as we 
were grandfathered in because of our ages.

Mary Lou
1991 R22 Fretless
Rock Hall, MD

At 08:17 AM 2/24/2016, you wrote:
>Peter: Sorry for your sad state of affairs! I 
>wonder if an ASA sailing 101 course would cover 
>the requirement?  I would just take their course 
>for fun, with pwc cert. and ASA101.  You will 
>learn and meet great people.  Remember these new 
>state courses are meant for the young out of 
>work college crowd.  They are highly educated 
>but have little to no practical experience in 
>anything. Bob (palatka) > On Feb 23, 2016, at 
>10:29 PM, The Rhodes 22 Email List 
><rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org> wrote: > > In 
>preparing for my first season of sailing in a 
>very long time (about 44 years), I happened to 
>stumble across the fact that I am required by 
>the state of Connecticut to take a boating 
>safety course in order to legally put my boat in 
>the water.  On a conceptual level, I have no 
>problem with this.  Some of the details of the 
>actual implementation though, I do find at least 
>a little bit annoying. > > Technically, there 
>are two levels of certification.  There’s the 
>basic ‘Safe Boating Certificate’, which is 
>the minimum requirement, and then on top of that 
>there’s the ‘Certificate of Personal 
>Watercraft Operation’. So, in theory, you 
>don’t need to worry about the latter 
>certificate unless you intend to operate a 
>PWC.  In practice though, the state only offers 
>training courses that cover both certificates. 
>On a positive note, the combined course and 
>associated test is offered by the state in a 
>variety of places and times either free or for a 
>very modest cost.  On the other hand, if you 
>want to skip the course and just take the test, 
>it will cost you $75. > > But, in sitting 
>through the course, I find the most annoying 
>part to be that the course material barely 
>manages to admit that sailboats actually 
>exist.  Of course it makes perfect sense that 
>the course would focus almost exclusively on 
>power boats and PWC, since that’s where most 
>of the problem is, but who is going to teach me 
>to watch out for the unintended gybe?  The 
>instructor, who claims to have 40 years of 
>experience on the water (and I actually believe 
>him), admits without the slightest hint of 
>embarrassment that he has no idea how sailboats 
>work.  Though on a positive note, since from his 
>perspective sailboats act in seemingly random 
>and irrational ways, he advises all of the power 
>boaters in the class (everyone but me it would 
>seem) to give them a wide berth at all 
>times.  > > Helpfully, the course comes with a 
>booklet which students can take home and 
>study.  I’ve been going through it in 
>preparation for taking the last section of class 
>and the exam tomorrow.  It’s actually pretty 
>well written, so it’s not that tough a 
>slog.  But I came across a section that really 
>gave me pause… > > The title of this section 
>is “Unlawful Operation of a Vessel”; so the 
>things listed below here are things that are 
>unlawful
 > > “Riding on the Boow, Deck, or 
>Gunwale is allowing passengers to ride on the 
>bow, gunwale, transom, seat backs, seats on 
>raised decks, or any other place where there may 
>be a chance of falling overboard.” > > I 
>won’t quote the whole thing, but there’s 
>subsequent language that says that this 
>doesn’t just mean you can’t hang your feet 
>over the side, this applies even if your feet 
>are inboard. > > Now this is not the actual 
>statue, this is an interpretation and 
>simplification of the statue for the general 
>public.  And I find the use of the term 
>‘passenger’ interesting.  The captain 
>isn’t a passenger, is he?  How about the 
>crew? > > So obviously I intend to ignore this, 
>as will every other sailor in Connecticut, until 
>such time that the powers that be arrest us all 
>for sitting on the gunwales or seat backs in 
>order to properly balance our sailboats. I think 
>the Captain’s Seats would be legal, so maybe 
>those of us who don’t have them will have to 
>upgrade. > > Peter Nyberg > Coventry, CT > No 
>Boat Yet > > > 
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