State's highest court OKs bans on personal watercraft (Maine)

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5043887.html

A state law that gives towns the power to ban personal watercraft on public lakes and ponds was upheld Thursday by Maine's highest court.

The decision comes just in time for summer, and it ends a three-year legal quest by a Camden man. Mark Haskell intentionally challenged the law in 2005 when he bought a $13,000 Sea Doo personal watercraft and illegally used it on Lake St. George in Liberty, where he owns a camp.

Haskell argued that the Waldo County town of Liberty -- and communities that have recently enacted bans in other towns -- have unfairly singled out personal watercraft, commonly known by the trade name Jet-Ski.

Haskell and his lawyer, Michael Kaplan of Preti Flaherty in Portland, said the Legislature should have at least taken evidence about the impact of the vessels, before passing a law that allows local bans.

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:toast:

swimmin' hole and back then there were boats all over it spewin' gas all over the water. We used to wash our hair in it as well. We had terrible algae blooms back then but since the ban on boats and washing it's cleaned up very nicely.

Those things are nothing buy noisy polluters on small lakes and rivers. Use them in the ocean if you must, but boats cause enough pollution without single-person watercraft zig-zagging around a small area, leaving exhaust behind. I'm sure they're fun but we should preserve as much of our ponds and lakes as possible.

The article where recreational boating takes a huge nose dive, due to fuel costs. My father in law has some neighbors with a 36 foot sport fishing boat. With current fuel prices, it costs them over a thousand dollars to take that thing out for day of tuna fishing.

Saw this a couple weeks ago:

Fuel prices, soft economy may sink boating business

This may be shaping up as the year of dockside boating.

With marine fuel prices topping $4 a gallon, generally higher than what motorists pay at the pump, many Long Islanders who own fuel-thirsty powerboats will be using them in a new way: as floating porches that remain tied to a dock. And when they do go somewhere, it's likely to be closer to home at slower speeds.

But the impact goes far beyond the cabin cruisers. With oil prices hitting a new high yesterday, commercial mariners - from captains of party fishing boats to diveboats - are reeling at fuel costs that have risen about 25 percent since last spring. Even worse, as charter boat captains charge more for trips, fewer anglers are showing up. And as boat owners try to save money wherever they can, many are doing more of their own maintenance.

It's not just fuel prices that are creating a problem for the Island's boating community. The softening economy has curbed consumer confidence and discretionary spending along the waterfront. Boat sales are off, on the Island and across the country.

Higher gas prices are a big headache for powerboat owners because most of them get poor mileage. According to Boating magazine, which tracks fuel consumption, a typical small sterndrive cruiser gets 1.5 miles per gallon. And an outboard-powered runabout is about 2 mpg.

http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-liboat225659548apr22,0,6062509.story

Lobster boat sales dead in the water

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=186534&ac=PHnws

JONESPORT — For the first time in 24 years of building lobster boats, Wayne Beal doesn't have any job orders.

He has a 42-footer under construction at his boatyard -- but he's building it for himself, so he can give up boat building and go lobster fishing instead.

In Maine, where lobster is king, Beal and other lobster boat builders are braving tough times. With the lobster catch down and fishermen feeling an economic squeeze, boat sales have hit the skids.

So even with the uncertainties facing lobster fishermen, Beal believes he's better off doing that than sitting around and hoping for more boat orders to come in.

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Not that I'll be mourning its passing.

The shrimping industry is dying here on the gulf coast.
Fuel prices too high and imported Chinese and Vietnamese shrimp prices too low.
Bad news.

I have seen no decline whatsoever in the numbers "personal watercraft," ski boats,fishing boats, dirt bikes, quads, snow mobiles or motor homes.

In fact, there seems to be more of all of the above. Manic forms of internal combustion "fun" seem to be the main thing Southern Californians (that's where most of them come from) live for.

Where they get the money for it, and what's going on in the rest of the country, I don't know. But there doesn't seem to be any public awareness that it's time to move on from these passtimes.....

although I always wish they had quieter hobbies.