I suppose a boat license is a necessary evil. For sure is not going to solve many/most boating issues on the water. Look at the discussion on Cruising Forum about incidents regarding the rule of the road and how man different opinions there are about the same fact. Many of the opinions are from people with Captains licenses...
I have seen many boating incidents which were caused by rudeness and inattention. A license will not fix rudeness and lack of attention.
Florida talked for years about requiring a boating license and it took years to put into place because people did not want the license, do not want the government intrusion that had not existed in the past, and the recognition that a license is only going to have a limited affect on boating safety. However, everyone knew a license would eventually be required because of all of the boating safety problems.
Some state boating licenses, just like some hunting licenses, require passing a test. Having people pass a test to get a hunting license was a wee bit unpopular, so the way politicians pushed the requirement was to have an age exception. If you already were old enough to have a hunting license you did not need to take the class. This same age based approach has been done with boating licenses.
I did not spend much time searching but I could not find long term boating accident rates for Florida. Certainly the FWC has the numbers. It would be interesting to see the accident rates, say 10 years prior the year that boating licenses were required to the present. I could find yearly reports from the FWC, but they only went back a few years. The number I did see showed and INCREASE in fatality rates but a DECREASE in injury rates over a time span of a few years. I think licenses were required all during that time frame.
Later,
Dan
I have seen many boating incidents which were caused by rudeness and inattention. A license will not fix rudeness and lack of attention.
Florida talked for years about requiring a boating license and it took years to put into place because people did not want the license, do not want the government intrusion that had not existed in the past, and the recognition that a license is only going to have a limited affect on boating safety. However, everyone knew a license would eventually be required because of all of the boating safety problems.
Some state boating licenses, just like some hunting licenses, require passing a test. Having people pass a test to get a hunting license was a wee bit unpopular, so the way politicians pushed the requirement was to have an age exception. If you already were old enough to have a hunting license you did not need to take the class. This same age based approach has been done with boating licenses.
I did not spend much time searching but I could not find long term boating accident rates for Florida. Certainly the FWC has the numbers. It would be interesting to see the accident rates, say 10 years prior the year that boating licenses were required to the present. I could find yearly reports from the FWC, but they only went back a few years. The number I did see showed and INCREASE in fatality rates but a DECREASE in injury rates over a time span of a few years. I think licenses were required all during that time frame.
Later,
Dan
