Wake me up when it's over

In a recent email, a fellow Power Squadron member asked whether the organization had considered creating a course on Boating Etiquette.

He told me about the weekly Sunday evening sail home from the Georgian Bay islands during which his sailboat was constantly thrown about due to the wakes of inconsiderate power boats overtaking him.

I shared his pain, as I experienced the same problem on a recent evening's run down from Hope Island to Midland, during which several very narrow chicanes must be negotiated. At one of these, we were at the point of passing a large powerboat traveling in the opposite direction. We were in a 34-foot sailboat and both boats were traveling at slow speed through the narrows. All of a sudden, and without warning, a smaller powerboat hurtled between the two of us throwing a huge wake. Not only was this clown inconsiderate, he was acting in a very dangerous manner.

The rest of the run down to our club was little different as power vessels large and small passed us on either side, cutting narrowly in front or behind us, leaving us to rock and roll in their nasty wakes.

Interestingly, a large tour boat that had lots of potential speed, chose to follow us the entire way through this section at a safe distance. These large tour boats can be heard on Channel 16 warning other boaters of their impending approach to any narrow sections. Sensible boaters stay out of their way - the clowns carry on regardless and risk life and limb. Heard also on CH16 are frequent hails from angry boaters to "slow the thing down".

The marine police, very evident during the weekend checking for "boat licence" infractions, were nowhere to be seen during the evening hours. A pity as they might have provided some much-needed "instruction". Damage caused by a wake is the responsibility of the vessel owner causing the damage (and/or the skipper). The trick is for the inured party to catch and identify the perpetrator.

BoatUS recently commented on this wake problem here

Coincidentally, the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons' training department has announced an etiquette supplement to its excellent Boating course. I am hopeful that it doesn't just relate to flag protocol.