Question:
I might get yelled at here, and please note that I am not a jet ski user.
The lake I waterski on in Maine has been going through a similar battle. Of
the nine (9) articles that they were trying to pass, the ninth was directed
towards all boats. Article 9 was designed to limit all boats to headway
speed on the lake after 9PM and before 9AM. All other articles were directed
towards banning jet skis. I chose to go to the meeting to convince people to
drop article 9. Everyone else was there for Articles 1-8.
First, different communities consider skiboats to be too loud too. Will we
be next after jet skis? PWC manufacturers are lower the dB levels of their
craft at a faster rate than skiboats. Skiboats dB levels have held steady at
95 dB or so. When will skiboat manufacturers start to remedy this?
Second, jet ski manufacturers are producing PWCs today that pollute less
than they used to. Are skiboat manufacturers focusing as much attention on
this? I doubt it.
Third, from an environmental impact point of view, jet skis produce a wake
that is much smaller than a skiboat's wake. This means that skiboats hurt
shoreland zones more than jet skis.
So, based on these three points, skiboats are next on the list. People
complain that we use them in the early morning when the lakes are calm
enough for slalom or barefoot runs and they are starting to enact
legislation to prevent us from our right to use bodies of water.
Skiers keep this in mind when you prevent a group that is working very hard
to improve their crafts to meet the needs of the public. We might be next.
Lastly, go out and look up in magazine archives in the 70's. You'll see this
same debate went on with snowmobiles. Just an interesting comparison.
Again, I am not a jetskier. I love to waterski. I'd hate to see any effort
to ban one activity come back to bite us too. Maybe we need to be focusing
our efforts as a community to get ski boat manufacturers to find way to
improve noise and pollution levels in their product instead of prohibiting
others who are doing the part to improve on the negative aspects of their
sport.
Answer:
You may take a beating for your post, even though it is right on. I tried to
make this point once before. The Bluewater Coalition is a very radical
environmental group that uses alot of lies and misinformation to get
politicians on it's side. They went as far as to say that park rangers were
going home sick from the fumes of snowmobiles in Yellowstone when they started
their campaign to get motorized vehicles out of Nat. Parks. The rangers office
said that was a flat out lie.
Anyway, I am sure this is not a group that will go away once they have banned
jetskis. Why wouldn't they go after boats next. They have stated on several
ocassions that they would like no motorized rec. vehicles in nat. parks.
However, I do think most ski boats are getting quieter. My new Supra is almost
too quiet. I liked the sound of my 89 better, but if this makes the neighbors
happy, I'm ok with it.
