Speed Limit for Boats

[georgina1971]

Spent another gorgeous week in the Cays of Abaco................



But BIG QUESTIONS?



Is there a speed limit for boats cruising in this area? The reason being is that far too many of the speeders are completely neglectful of boats anchored at boat moorings, and they also do not care about the damage done to boats tied up at these docks. Worst of all they are seemingly un-thoughtful about families that are swimming in the beautiful waters.



Is it not common boating courtesy the same in the Bahamas as it is in the United States; needless to say it is guest like ourselves to the Bahamas that are unfortunately the worse offenders.



Very seriously is there a regulation that covers this completely necessary activity. This is particularly offensive on the western side of Elbow Cay and Scotland Cay.

[bevo/fishing/hunting]

I completely agree with you when it comes to boaters out of control. But, I'm 99.9999 percent sure there are no speed limits. Who and How would they be enforced?

[AbacoPeach]

Not sure if there is an official regulation or not but even if there was, there is no one out there to enforce it. I think anyone in the Abaco waters (and, of course, any waters) should use common boating courtesy, but sadly enough, there are a lot of people out there who don't know what the means or just don't care!

[R]

No such laws, and even if there were; as bevo said - there would be no way to enforce it.
But this might be a good chance to "educate" new visitors / boaters as to boating etiquette.

R.

[Henz]

boating etiquette is the same all over the world..no matter if you are on a small pond, great lake or ocean, you should be mindful of your wakes and follow the Coast Guard regulations on who has the right of way..Its also important to know how your boat handles..for instance, you are moored and a 25 footer is approaching. if the boat were to pass you by slowing down it could throw a bigger wake than if it went by you while on plane..However, the boat could have stayed on plan and veered farther away from you.

[BradW]

To be fair, a lot of the 18-26 foot outboards that are used in the Hub are thankfully relatively shallow planing hulls rather than husky deep-vees. They actually throw less wake on full plane than at any speed other than dead-slow displacement speed (under 5 knots) that none of them would run. My concern is with careless, inexperienced, or impaired skippers running fast too close to other vessels to maintain safe margins for the conditions. If you're doing 25 knots close to people and boats, you don't have a lot of time margin for making piloting decisions.

Near my home grounds of Annapolis, we are infested with large numbers of extremely powerful high performance speedboats, Fountains, Cigarettes and worse. Aside from the fact most run unmuffled dual or triple V-8s that can be heard for 5 miles in any direction, they can and do run at speeds of over 70 mph through dense weekend boat traffic and seem to expect the rest of us to get out of their way. The responsible skippers of such powerful boats are vastly outnumbered by the bozos. Their wakes are the least of the problem. A big, wallowing SeaRay half on plane throws more wake by far.

[Henz]

exactally my point

[R]

Another problem is:
boats crossing too close off the stern of boats trolling.
I have had six lines cut at once by careless boaters. Besides the cost to me for lures, line, and bait the boat who cut me off also wound up yards of line around his prop, and shaft. He kept going so I had no chance to warn him of the damage he was probably doing to his boat.

R.

[Henz]

yeah I had that happen to me back in 85..I was only 13 at the time and I was trolling inside the abacos..one guy ran right across the stern not 20yards and it stripped my reel clean..I stil dont know if it was my fault for trolling in an area that normally isnt fished etc..I didnt know any better back then

[Jaxcrack]

I had the unfortunate pleasure to witness some of the worst boatsmanship I have ever seen when we went up to Green Turtle one day. We were cruising (idle speed) through the harbor taking in the views and admiring the boats that were moored. We were just about to the 'end' when these "fishermen" came through on a plane... yes I said on a plane through the harbor... on their 30 something foot center console with tripple 275's hanging off the back. Once they realized (I'm assuming) they were not in the right place they continued to whip that thing around, barely slowing down, and flew on out of there. We were left to bounce around and watched as their wake tossed each and every boat in there around. I would be amazed if there was no damage.

I say "fisherman" because they had thousands of dollars worth of fishing gear, brand new sunburns, and were only looking for the closest bar. After leaving the harbour we saw them tied up near Pineapples, I think it was.

[dogfish]

I have two stories about guys just not paying attention (one offshore and the other inshore).

In 2005 we had a moorings 38 foot cat that had issues with its anchor laying up on its side instead of digging in so we had to swim out and set it before applying reverse thrust to dig it in. Because of this we anchored near the rocks at fish hotel off of tillo (about 100 yards off of the rocks). After setting the anchor I hear a couple of boats in the water getting closer so I started to swim back to the boat but not in a real hurry. The next thing I knew two 20 rental boats blow right over where I just was setting the anchor at full throttle. They came up on us so fast I didn't even know how close they were when I heard them. They had a nice wide channel between Tillo and Lubbers but just had the run in between our boat and the rocks.

The second story was this past year offshore and wasn't as much of a big deal. While trolling offshore with a 40 foot sailboat we were almost run down by a fisherman trolling at a much higher speed. The thing that got me was the guy was on his tower looking backwards and driving and never once looked forward to see where he was going. He was actually changing direction but not looking. We made a course adjustment to avoid him and moments later he made a course adjust right back at us. We corrected again and moments later he changed again. The entire time he never looked back.

-Doug

[HTVFR]

No, very sorry there are no regulations regarding speed other than those contained within the International Collision Regulations - Safe Speed (Rule 6).

Bad manners are one thing, but if you see something obviously dangerous and have some positive identification on the boat in question, then please feel free to report it to the Police in Marsh Harbour and state your concerns.

HTVFR






Spent another gorgeous week in the Cays of Abaco................



But BIG QUESTIONS?



Is there a speed limit for boats cruising in this area? The reason being is that far too many of the speeders are completely neglectful of boats anchored at boat moorings, and they also do not care about the damage done to boats tied up at these docks. Worst of all they are seemingly un-thoughtful about families that are swimming in the beautiful waters.



Is it not common boating courtesy the same in the Bahamas as it is in the United States; needless to say it is guest like ourselves to the Bahamas that are unfortunately the worse offenders.



Very seriously is there a regulation that covers this completely necessary activity. This is particularly offensive on the western side of Elbow Cay and Scotland Cay.

[Cathy Arizona]

My daughter and son-in-law were snorkeling off Tilloo last year. I stayed on the boat. All the boats heading our way went around the snorkeling area or idled down and steered clear of the snorkelers. Except one boat. I heard it coming and expected it to slow down or go around like all others had done. Fortunately, I had a whistle and blew it so my daughter and son-in-law would move. They swam like crazy to get out of the way of the oncoming boat. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn't gotten their attention. That boat never slowed down, and I don't think they even saw anyone in the water.

[Cobra]

...from ymcascuba.org....."While many boaters still need to be educated on the subject, the traditional Divers Flag has become widely recognized. Common sense suggests displaying both the Alpha Flag and the traditional dive flag when diving from a boat. Common sense also suggests taking the flags down on the boat when diving is finished. To use the flags as mere boat decoration is to undercut their intended meaning. In fact, 18 states prohibit display of a dive flag when divers are not in the water"

While in Abaco,it would be wise to use the Divers Flag whenever divers are in the water...my recolection is that divers should stay within 100 feet of the boat displaying the Divers Flag.

Most boaters tend to slow down and look for people in the water if they spot a "Dive Flag" - but not all. So caution is the key word!

Cobara

[dogfish]

we had a diver down flag last year which made no difference to the two boats running at 20 plus mph.

[abaco dog]

DEFENSIVE SWIMMING AND BOATING

for years, i have done a lot of exercise swiming in the Sea of Abaco, swimming at a good clip for a half hour or more at a time.

"aren't you worried about sharks?", people often ask.

'no", i reply, "only about drunks in speedboats."

and there you have it.

[bahamassun]

Many of these boats are rentals and the parents allow children to drive them.You can see them bow riding.Guess they should have seen the fourteen year old girl who slipped off the bow and was hit by the prop.I have a simple rule....the rental boat has the right away.So many of these boats are rented by tourists...a good rule fo the rental companys whould be..if you allow kids to drive your rental is over..safe boating