I know a lot of you were in Shasta last weekend, you're lucky. Their were at least 8 different law enforcement agencies out writing tickets for almost everything imagineable.
I launched from buckley cove and they had a voluntary vessal safety check by the coast gaurd auxiliary. The guys there were pretty cool and only made us change our CF #'s because they said you couldn't read them. Actually, they gave the stickers to us. At the end of the check they put a safety inspection- Coast Gaurd sticker on the boat (ass ugly) that was supposed to help in us not getting pulled over. They also handed us a copy of the inspection report.
WELL IT CAME IN HANDY! Even with the sticker we got pulled over four times. Once down by Disco Bay, the other three right around Windmill Cove. Funny thing was some of the Coast Gaurd personnel didn't know what the sticker was until I showed them the safety inspection report from earlier that morning. I got the feeling a couple of times they were a little disappointed they couldn't go through their routine and find something.
The thing that got most people was the "Blue Light Law". 5 mile/no wake zone within 200 feet(I think) of a LEO vessel with a blue light on. They informed us a couple of times it was a $750.00 fine. It was a little rough saturday afternoon and our argument was always that 200 feet is a bit of a judgement call, and our wake is hardly noticable compared to the natural conditions out there that day. We were never sited, and three of the four we ran into generally decent interactions.
Be careful and obey the laws, revenues are still down for public agencies.
I launched from buckley cove and they had a voluntary vessal safety check by the coast gaurd auxiliary. The guys there were pretty cool and only made us change our CF #'s because they said you couldn't read them. Actually, they gave the stickers to us. At the end of the check they put a safety inspection- Coast Gaurd sticker on the boat (ass ugly) that was supposed to help in us not getting pulled over. They also handed us a copy of the inspection report.
WELL IT CAME IN HANDY! Even with the sticker we got pulled over four times. Once down by Disco Bay, the other three right around Windmill Cove. Funny thing was some of the Coast Gaurd personnel didn't know what the sticker was until I showed them the safety inspection report from earlier that morning. I got the feeling a couple of times they were a little disappointed they couldn't go through their routine and find something.
The thing that got most people was the "Blue Light Law". 5 mile/no wake zone within 200 feet(I think) of a LEO vessel with a blue light on. They informed us a couple of times it was a $750.00 fine. It was a little rough saturday afternoon and our argument was always that 200 feet is a bit of a judgement call, and our wake is hardly noticable compared to the natural conditions out there that day. We were never sited, and three of the four we ran into generally decent interactions.
Be careful and obey the laws, revenues are still down for public agencies.
