We were sailing today on L.Ontario (glorious day to be out). Of the 4 or 5 powerboats whose paths we crossed, all insisted on crossing our bow instead of astern, even if astern was the smaller course variation. Something to do with penis size, I guess. At least most of them gave us some room. One oversized stinkboat coming nearly head-on, driven by a silver-haired Master of The Universe, at that sub-planing speed that generates the largest wake, barely altered course to cross less than 40 ft in front of us, necessitating a sharp starboard turn in order to cross the obscene wake at near 90 degrees to minimise the roll. We only have a 19' sailboat, after all...
I won't float any speculation about what caused the above-discussed fatality, which makes me sad, other than to point out that the boats involved were going fast and close, at least one of which is an error in judgment. And of course we have too little information to discern the role of the jetski. Personally, I'm not a fan of jetskis, and we've been buzzed by a few, but none have been as discourteous or threatening as the motorized whale in the hands of some Pillar of Society who thinks he's the stand-on vessel in any situation.
Even in our club today, as we were preparing to leave, we saw a 30' Nonsuch at near full throttle running out one of the club channels. If another boat had backed out, there's no way that Nonsuch could have stopped in time.
So, still too many a$$holes on the water, or normal folks who just don't know better. What's the solution?
