New Proposed off shore speed limits for East Coast

F

FootballFan

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Jun 20, 2012
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Marquis 59
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MTU Series 60
I have seen this on a couple of other boating sites. Haven't seen it here, if I just missed it, sorry for the duplicate post.

Net, NOAA is proposing a regulation to restrict vessels from 35-65 ft. to a top speed of 10kts for out to 60 miles off shore. Time of year for the restriction varies from November to April/May. Impacts northern FL to Maine.

https://www.federalregister.gov/doc...ntic-right-whale-vessel-strike-reduction-rule


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Yikes! Well, 34' LOA so it would not apply to me.

But a good friend of mine, growing up, his parents would make the trip every year from Maine down to the Keys.

One year they did hit a whale and destroyed the props.

Would the whale really think ............. wow, good thing they were going less than 10 knots :eek:
 
I am speechless, never even heard of a Right Whale until now.

This makes absolutely no sense. Are they thinking an outdrive boat and non-diesel are less likely to go ocean bound or less likely to strike a whale!? Possibly less injury to the whale from an outdrive then a diesel boat running gear I guess. Crazy.
 
Well, experiencing a situation firsthand, I follow their logic. It was few years ago, when we were cruising up the coast at about 9kts and admiral took the wheel while I had to do something, but was still up on the bridge. I glanced out and have noticed something barely sticking out of the water. While an autopilot was keeping us on the set course, I thought for a moment that if it's something alive (most likely a dolphin), it will move. Otherwise, I'll make the course correction. We've had lots of interactions with dolphins and there was never a concern of any danger.

As we were getting closer, I see that whatever it is, it's not moving. Out of curiosity I maintained the course but dropped her to idle, just to see if it's a whale which should also react to the engine noise and move away. What you know, I had to do a full stop and confirm that it was in fact a whale with no intentions of moving. After watching it for few min, this "guy" actually showed sings of live and began moving. Best explanation I found for the situation that it was a sleeping whale.

The moral of the story is pretty simple. If we were cruising fast, there was a great chance we could have not spot it in time and most likely would have collided with the whale. Thus, instead of pleasurable sight seen it could have been a disaster.

I guess it's just like with Manatees. Depending on the season and the area, there're a lot more of them out there. Slowing down gives everyone much greater chance to react.

Now, as for what it has to do with 35-65'? I think the answer is that there's already a speed limit for vessels over 65'. It's usually posted in LNMs. So, now the authorities are looking to slow down 35-65'er category.

Of course I get the average boater's frustration, thinking what are the chances. But, believe me, you cruise often in those areas, you'll be surprised what you encounter out there. I've seen whales quite a bit and witnessed a live show of a lifetime. One time (totally different occasion) a whale a size of my boat was in touching distance to my hull.
 
Definitely will slow my trips out of Wassau sound to the reefs. Still proposal, check out some of the comments.

But when I'm 15-30 miles offshore heading on a trip down the coast, that is really going to F me up. Not good, double my time and more fuel costs, thinking of that, it's starting to piss me off...

I did grow up boating with manatees in Indian River county, never hit one, but have seen some that had heavy scars. Wifey is scared to death of them, had a bad small boat experience with one that wanted to play when she was young, knocked the boat around a little and scared her for life. I think the're cute, have a stuffed one in t

Situations vary by situation, but not thinking we need regs here. That being said there are some F'up boaters nowadays that are all too often not aware of thier surroundings at all times.
 
Jim, you can't look at it as f'ing up your boating. You have to look at it as benefitting the greater good. I mean, look at how it's going to make things better for,,,umm, then there's the healthier side of things for the penguins and polar bears. Errr, well, oh never mind.:(
 
Obviously, this is all political brain fart. If they got away with restricting speed limits for over 65'ers, that gave them power to go to the next level. What can we do other than voting them out, which doesn't seem to work either?

In reality, have you heard reports of ships or yachts being pulled over for going over 10kts? Just saying....CG has much more important things to take care of than this nonsense.

You just cant' let this get to you. Get out and enjoy boating. Do whatever make most sense and keeps you safe.
 
If you have AIS you gave yourself up. Fine will be in the mail.
Big brother is watching.
 
Fred said:
If you have AIS you gave yourself up. Fine will be in the mail.
Big brother is watching.
Click to expand...

If you're out of the towers range, they're SOL. But, even close to shore, I doubt that their systems are geared for that.
 
This is all a ploy and part of the "grand scheme". Start w/ 65' and up. then in a couple of years, it will be 30' and up and so on and so on.

It is a scheme to eliminate pleasure boating fuel usage to appease the the climate crazies and PETA types.
 
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