Watercraft Enthusiasts’ Ripple Effect

When warm weather brings a wondrous mix of vessels to Orange County’s coast, let’s hope they all find a way to get along--and safely.

Harbor Patrol Sgt. Ron Peoples surprised me when I asked if it is just a few who are unsafe on the water: “Unfortunately, it’s the majority who seem to be uneducated about boating safety,” he said.

One problem hard to ignore is the personal watercraft, the biggest-selling boats in California. These machines are known as “motorcycles of the ocean” and go by trade names such as Jet Ski and WaveRunner.

Personal watercraft sales nearly doubled in the last six years, and they make up 17% of the 900,000 registered boats in California. Yet in 1997, they were involved in 52% of injury accidents on the water.

That troubling statistic will go down somewhat when 1998 figures come out in May, state officials say, because of the new law making it illegal for people under the age of 16 to operate

these craft. Still, accidents involving these watercraft are still expected to be inordinately high.

What stands out in those 1997 stats: 48% of those personal watercraft injuries were caused by hot-dogging: jumping wakes of other boats, trying to spray other boaters or forming “doughnuts” in the water.

A friend of mine who sails complains that the personal watercraft operators don’t understand that a sailboat is at the mercy of the wind and can’t always get out of the way.

Of course, authorities point out, the sailors shouldn’t have to get out of the way. They have the right of way against any motorized water vehicles.

But it’s not just those on Jet Skis who do dumb things, Peoples points out.

“You’d be amazed the number who take their boats out of the mothballs come spring and put them in the water without ever checking them out,” he said. “They get out here and discover too late that they don’t have oil, or even gasoline.”

How about this for dumb things: You’ve seen how wide the mouth of the harbor is in Newport Beach? Numerous boaters run up on the rocks when reentering the harbor because they misjudge where the opening is. Usually this is in fog, or at night, Peoples said. But it can happen any time you aren’t careful.

Most boaters who are returned to shore by the Harbor Patrol deputies lack the required number of personal flotation devices--life jackets. You need one for every person on the boat. Also, all jackets must be “readily available” by law--not shoved up into the bow in a canvas bag.

Another big reason boaters are whisked off the water: too many people aboard. Unfortunately, the law isn’t clear on how many is too many. A good gauge is if you’ve run out of life jackets, or if the boat seems to be extraordinarily low to the water’s surface.

One explanation for why so many boaters are uneducated: State figures show that about one-third of all boaters are either borrowing boats or renting them.

Here’s a suggestion from the Harbor Patrol: Before you boaters enter any of Orange County’s three harbors (Dana Point, Newport Beach or Huntington Harbour) stop in its offices to pick up a copy of The ABCs of the California Boating Law.

Before too long, you might not have a choice in improving your boating education. New legislation expected to be approved this year will require all boaters to pass an examination.