Skip, thanks for the link. I find John Irwin's quote to be interesting.
Taken from the Citizen article:
"It's going to affect everybody. I just think it will turn people away from Winnipesaukee," said John Irwin, owner and operator of Irwin Marine.
Irwin explained that speedboats make up a very small percentage of his overall business, a trend he believes is industrywide in New Hampshire, estimating that boats sold for speed make up less than one percent of overall sales.
However, because of the heated debate over this issue Irwin said he was somewhat leery about how all of this might impact tourism and recreational boating.
This is coming from a dealer who does no real business in the performance boat industry. They carry Sea Doo and Skeeter bass boats, neither of which are the main "culprits". He has no real stake in this argument as it will not hinder his sales of a specific type of boat. Bass fishermen will still buy their boats regardless of a speed limit as they serve a purpose. we have already had discussions that not too many PWC even break 50mph so it will not curb their sales.
What it will do is change the local industry/economy. What is your pitch to be to bring people back? "Come to Winnipesaukee, the safest place on water thanks to Bear Island". Sounds catchy to me. No, actually it doesn't. Drive away the tourists and the businesses go away. What happens to your taxes? Before you know it FLL will be paying $20k a year for his slice of heaven.
I find it extremely comical that the SL crew fought hard to prove radar was effective and not that results come back to show conflicting data to their cause the data was instantly skewed. Face it, the law is not needed! Speed is not an issue on other lakes because of their sheer size. How many 30+ footers do you typically see on Ossippee? On Squam? Is there really enough space (or depth for that matter) to venture above 40mph on these bodies of water?
Bear Islander, how is this going to be enforced if your claims that the radar was inneffective unless under perfect conditions/angles? And how do you know that some of this data was not collected in unmarked boats? I have heard of unmarked MP PWC and jet boats on patrol, what makes you think that no data was gathered from unmarked boats? And the othe 7 test zones, don't you think that someone would notice marked MP boats in other areas running radar traps? I heard of no such report and out of 3800+ boats tested I think that someone would have squawked if they saw someone running the gun in a different spot.
Lets just ban all power boats and get it over with. Maybe nekkid kayaking should be allowed. Maybe sailboats only. I am beginning to care less and less. If it passes though what is next?
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