About that Lake Winnipesaukee speed limit proposal…

M/S Mount Washington: The biggest wake of all?

Enjoying the Lake. No speed limit needed!

With the House scheduled to take up the boat speed limit bill targeting Lake Winnipesaukee tomorrow, a regular ‘Grok reader submitted the following:

I’m a little surprised that it is taking so long for the NH Legislature to pass the boating speed limit law. This cast of characters seems to put a high priority in passing new laws that strip NH citizens of their freedoms. What’s next? Will it be safety belt laws, helmet laws, Big Mac hamburgers, alcohol, carbon limits, or whatever else they can think of? No matter what’s your pleasure in life, sooner or later they’re coming after you.

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It would be one thing if the need for a boating speed limit would actually change any of the problems they claim exist. There are zero facts to support that speeding boats are a problem on the lake but I suppose if you say it enough times it becomes the perceived truth. In a recent lengthy tome in the Citizen newspaper, a writer claims that speeding boaters were deterred by officials all over the lake with radar guns. In reality, the officials confined themselves to just few spots. I would be very surprised if many boaters even knew about or witnessed any officials clocking their speed.
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It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the boating volume has been significantly reduced. Most people, even those with money, aren’t in the mood to blaze up and down the lake burning up fuel at nearly $4.00 a gallon. You could simply ask any marina that sells boat gas how their fuel sales were last year.

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Seriously, if this was about safety then facts show that the legislature should pass a law making it illegal to swim or jump from a boat. A few minutes of research would prove that nearly all boating fatalities occurred when boaters were swimming from their boats. If this was about shore line erosion then they would outlaw big cabin cruisers that put up a huge wake at slow cruising speeds. Unfortunately, I don’t expect the current NH Legislature to make any decisions based on facts. It’s far easier to pass meaningless feel good laws that allow them to pat themselves on the back and claim they did something. It would actually require competence to tackle the difficult REAL issues that concern NH residents– Something this legislature is seriously lacking!

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T. Stewart

Gilford, NH

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Eric Shirley

Just another reason to continue my plans to move out of state once retirement comes (10 years or so). The Republican party seems moribund in this state (I point to Fred Thompson’s performance as proof). All it took was a quick 5-10 years to complete. I moved from VT in 2000 after attending college here in the 80′s. 5 years in the Army and a short stint in VT law enforcement convinced me that NH was the place to be. Low taxes (confiscatory ones anyway), fairly conservative social policy, etc. 5 years is all it took to lose it all. With a popular Governor and an almost bullet proof majority in the legislature I don’t see this state changing back anytime soon. Once a broad based tax is enacted it will be the last nail in the coffin. The education funding issue is the hammer hanging over that income/sales tax nail. Once that blow falls NH will become just another Left oriented New England state. A quaint place to visit but a difficult place to grow and prosper. Water based speed limits are a small step in that direction. Sorry to be so cynical but that’s the way I see things.
E.S.
Bea Smith

Why do we have to keep hearing about the “freedoms” of the poor cigarette boat owners to go as fast as they want and we never hear anyone trying to defend the freedoms of the common folks to share our resource with them? The conservative approach, which had always been the NH way as I grew up here, was that it should be the few who sacrifice their freedoms for the benefit of the many, not the other way around. IT was teh johnny-come-lately liberals who were alwasy trying to make the majority suffer for the sake of a few…affirmative action, the ADA, wealth redistribution, etc. Making the typical granite stater wait ashore so a few idiot cowboys from MA can bring their $200K boats up and dominate our lakes with their high speed hobby is the problem here that needs to be discussed…not seeing the traditional people of NH finally rise up and object and try to take their lakes back. You guys have it backwards.