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As if we hadn't heard enough about road rage, we now face a new hazard from operators who lose their cool -- boat rage.

(Note: Picture from Cruise Craft)

Officers of the Missouri Water Patrol say they are receiving increasing reports of the maritime version of road rage, while the land-based version continues to cause hazards on our streets and highways.

As safety officers -- on both land and water -- seek to combat this problem, we must observe that it will not be an easy problem to overcome. One factor that makes the battle difficult is that most "rage" incidents are triggered by an improper action on the part of the operator who is subsequently targeted by the "rage" violator.

Improper driving by someone else does not excuse road rage or boat rage incidents, but the action-reaction nature of the problem makes it more difficult to combat.

It behooves us to operate our vehicles in a safe and courteous manner, and when someone else doesn't do that, we must remember that temper control on our part enhances safety for everyone.

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Boat rage is joining road rage as an unwelcome American characteristic. Lt. Lee Palfrey of the Florida Marina Patrol tells the current (October) issue of Boating that boat rage "is increasing in relative proportion to the increases in the number of people on the water.

"As the water becomes more jammed with traffic, some people tend to fly off the handle easier than they would otherwise, Palfrey said.

What's the best way to react to all on-the-water affront? Turn the other check, Palfrey suggested. Go out of your way to be courteous.

"Lay off the horn, don't yell back, avoid eye contact, and get out of the way as quickly and safely as you can, he said. "If you can't defuse the situation, call the nearest law enforcement agency for assistance."

To avoid provoking other boaters yourself, don't blast your stereo, hog the waterways, cut in front of others, or stir up wakes when nearing fisherman.

People are being advised to take care and keep their cool when sailing this summer. The warning comes after a boat rage incident in Taupo involving a windsurfer and commercial fishing boat.

Harbourmaster Doug Brown says he received a complaint about the board sailor's behaviour and language after a collision between the two vessels. No one was hurt during the incident.

Mr Brown says there has been an increase in boat rage incidents in recent years and more cases were expected this summer.

People will have to be patient and keep their temper over summer as there will be more boats on the lake, he says.

One trouble spot was the boat ramp at Two Mile Bay where boat owners have been known to lose their tempers while waiting to use the ramp.

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Another problem was people refusing to give their name and address when being issued with a ticket by a warden.

"They seem to think we won't be able to find them but 99 per cent of the time we do," Mr Brown says.

Anyone who refuses to give personal information will find themselves facing a hefty fine.

Mr Brown says his final advice was to always follow the boating laws when on the lake.

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Did you ever notice that when your favorite show comes out with something "very special" that it's something "socially relevant" and may not even be entertaining? Well, this is my "public service" assault on one of today's most pressing problems.

BOOOOOAAAAAAAATTTTT RAGGGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Yes, BOAT RAGE is a growing problem on our waterways and in our sea-lanes. Some may think that this is a new plague but my best information tracks this back to the dawn of time. Phlegm the Syphilitic versus Gilbert the Great? Boat Rage. Juttland? Boat Rage. Monitor and Merrimac? Boat Rage.

What if the crew of the BISMARK would've just done the "yachting wave"? Many Cold War incidents were strict cases of Boat Rage. When man first ventured out to sea for "pleasure" one would've thought that they would've left Boat Rage to the professional sailors and warriors but it appears to also be a part of our recreational boating phenomena. How does one recognize the warning signs?

It has been my observation that it almost always begins with the actions of another boater. This is not limited to power. It can be the unsuspecting, unlighted, kayakers crossing your bow as you turn into your marina at dusk. You boil the water behind you while backing down, straight-arm a piling, and terrify other boat owners. They've seen you in action before and have long memories.

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What is that feeling?

You have an urge!

You are awash in the desire to take up your flare gun with your good arm (the one you straight-armed the piling with does not bend anymore) and light the way for these noble adventurers. BOAT RAGE!!!! Is that why, when you buy a new flare gun, that they give you a "white" shell to practice with? Has anyone EVER shot their "white" shell? If you were to shoot a red flare you'd be violating a CG regulation probably but you can "practice" with the "white" shell. "Yes, the white shell will do......... yes it will......" By then you've regained some of your composure and hopefully some common sense and abandoned these urges as passing whims.

Communications adds a new dimension to BOAT RAGE. Aggression can be exercised but violence minimized as you can "QUICK!", hide the microphone after you've lamb-basted someone's parentage and boat choice, over channel 9, because of their tsunami wake. I recently found that I could contact a vessel, in more than enough time, for them to turn around and witness the carnage that they had left behind in their mountainous wake. I briefly discussed the "white" flare shell with them and quickly signed off. Even though they could not tell which of the metronome-like "boats with sticks" we were, I felt better!

This brings us to one of the founding theories of BOAT RAGE. It is affectionately known as The Ugly Yachtsman's Theory on Surprise Encounters. A surprise encounter can be anything from turning around and seeing "TUNA MARU" in large letters right behind you, a wake so large you can almost hear the theme song from Hawaii Five-Oh. The "white" flare Dan'o!

There are three phases to this theory.

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BOAT RAGE and commercial vessels. If you see a brightly colored vessel, usually diesel powered, with a name like "Molly Theresa IX", even money has it that this is a "Lobsterman". Seeing these mariners zig-zag across the channel dropping their pots is a common sight in many waterways. Even though I have probably cost them as much money as they have cost me, these are the LAST people I would ever want to put a dose of BOAT RAGE on. I have heard rumors that they are frequently armed. A lobsterman being armed is obviously in response to the ever-present threat of a "lobster insurrection" that could take place between the pot and dock. These professional mariners could be a welcome sight in a crisis and have helped more than one "pleasure craft" in distress.

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BOAT RAGE can also be levied against crew. If the crew succumbs to BOAT RAGE it is called "mutiny" though. It can get real tricky here. I am not even going to "go there" in this discussion, as instances of BOAT RAGE with crew are stories unto themselves.

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BLOOMINGDALE (AP) -- A man has been charged with ramming his speedboat into a family’s pontoon boat after an argument in Van Buren County north of Paw Paw. Tom Hunsberger has been charged with reckless operation of a boat and malicious destruction of property more than $200 but less than $1,000. The warrant was authorized on September 2.

The Hunsbergers say the Andersons were rude, nasty boaters who thumbed their noses at the rules of Muskrat Lake on June 20, sending Hunsberger into a rage. Sue Anderson—who is from Chicago—says the charges were too mild and wonders why it took almost four months to file them.

We were out on the lake on Saturday afternoon, just tooting along in our old boat (Jim prefers to call it a “classic”) when all of a sudden Jim yells, “Hey buddy...I have the right of way here!” As if the guy in the boat traveling at warp speed bearing down on our port side could actually hear him. “Give it up, Jim, you don’t want to be ‘dead right!’” I warned, while Jim backed off on the throttle, not an easy thing to do for my guy when he knows he’s right.

We both rejoiced when we heard that operator’s licenses will soon be required for boaters. Our whole family took the Marine Patrol’s Safe Boating Course. But Jim has an additional idea: “They should require a yellow stripe around the entire boat when there’s a rookie operator on board so the rest of us can stay out of the way.”

For now, we have to rely on their boat rental graphics to warn us that the operator:
a. doesn’t know where the hazards are on the lake and doesn’t much care.
b. knows where the buoys are, but doesn’t know what they’re there for
c. doesn’t have a clue that there’s a 150-foot no wake passing zone, and even if he did, doesn’t know how wide 150-feet actually is.

Even when boat licenses are issued, it doesn’t mean that these water jocks - whose egos are hardwired to their boat throttles - are going to obey the rules because they figure that there are a heck of a lot less water police on the lake than there are on the roads...and they’re right. And have you seen the size of the boats out there? One of these water rockets blasts by and all we can think of is that it’s burning up enough fuel money to send a kid to college.

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For too many of these boaters, they climb into a boat and their brains atrophy. They forget that a little courtesy goes a long way. We have road rage. We have neighbor rage, and pretty soon we’ll have boat rage. Expect fatalities.

What I don’t understand is that boating is supposed to be a relaxing thing to do; so why are they in such a hurry, and don’t care who they take out on the way?

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original here

By David Arnold

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"Boat rage" has become the newest nautical term on the Cape, according to harbor masters and boatyard workers, the malaise fueled by an economy that has aspiring mariners purchasing dreams with little knowledge about how to drive them and who care nothing for sea etiquette.

"In the boating world, there's a definite scary trend here on the Cape," says Richard Smith, the supervisor at the Falmouth Marine boatyard. Pleasure has turned to frustration, right here amid the salty breezes of ol' Cape Cod.

There are 22,101 municipal mooring sites (including 200 dock slips in Sandwich), according to the harbor masters of the 13 Cape Cod towns with water depths or conditions at all suitable for quartering a boat. Only Eastham and Provincetown have any space left, but desperate boat owners might want to think twice before leaping. The Eastham sites are high and dry, except at high tide, and are located far from parking, according to harbor master Henry Lind. Provincetown has about 100 sites outside the breakwater. But they're problematic: They are a fair dinghy ride from shore, they have not yet been approved by the town fathers, and they take a beating in southwesters - the prevailing wind around here.

At least three harbors now use triple-tiered racks to store boats that are launched and retrieved from the water with a forklift for every use. All have waiting lists; the list at the Pier 37 facility in Falmouth closed last September after 70 people signed up.

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Life went from bad to worse for that captain as follows: One engine conked out. With the other engine at full throttle and the 30-foot boat careering toward the entrance of the canal at an estimated 20 knots, the captain, who was the only one aboard, went below to tinker with the engine and try to restart it. He hit a shoal in Bourne so hard that when the tide went out, the boat was perched in the mud like a balanced ice cream cone.

"I didn't cite him," Jaramillo says. "I felt sorry for him. And how do you cite someone for being unaware of his environment?"

Such incidents have become more common with the influx of new boaters, harbor masters agree, particularly as the length of boat "parades" returning to port at the end of the day get longer and try patience harder.

In Orleans last July, for example, a couple from Lexington aboard their spanking-new 23-foot Bayliner had grown frustrated with the pace of the single-lane boat traffic returning through the narrow channel of Pleasant Bay to Orleans.

"So the guy put his wife in the bow to look for shoals, then broke out of line and put the twin 200-horsepower engines full forward," recalls Dawson Farber, the Orleans harbor master. The Bayliner hit a shoal and drove itself 140 feet across the sand, launching the woman an additional 75 feet. Miraculously, she survived the flight without serious injury.

"I fined him $100 for speeding," Farber says, "and decided to stop there. I figured the wife would do the rest."

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Bring a raincoat for the afternoon thunderstorms and be prepared to get off the river to avoid being struck by lightning!

Mosquitoes are thick in June/July and sometimes into August so have your bug spray handy.

Be prepared for the crowds and bring along your best fly fishing etiquette. Be courteous and respectful to the river and other anglers. There is plenty of good river to fish. There is no sense in generating “River Rage” and creating a lose-lose scenario!

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Of course the sheer enjoyment of nature is transitory and once you leave the water and forest behind and hit the highway you are back to the rat-race of the modern world. "Look at that idiot on my back bumper," says the man behind the wheel. The voice behind, you know full well, is saying, "Get out of the way or speed up, you fool." Finally he passes with or without the horn or finger, but with obvious angst takes off at an excessive rate. The immediate reaction of the other driver, who could well be you is, "I'll fix him," and he hits the accelerator, or at least there is a foot itching to do so.

While loons call on our wilderness lakes and checkers click, a few miles away road rage simmers on our highways.

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This column is about "boat rage". I know, sailors are from Mars, and powerboaters are from Venus. But where are Personal Watercrafters from?

I started off this season with exuberance after three huge powerboats, on three successive days, slowed down to an almost wake-free speed while passing me. I could hardly believe this was happening. As a matter of fact, while sailing with my friend Howard Abramson on the third day, I mentioned this near phenomenon to him. Cynicism being his long suit, he said that I had been out in the sun too long. But then, here comes huge powerboat number three up from behind. This boat is pushing a huge bow wave and I just know its wake is going to rock and roll my modest little sailboat. Howard is watching this with a wry grin on his face. And then it happened: the huge powerboat slowed down and passed me at a very safe and serene speed. The both of us tipped our hats at the considerate captain.

But then as the season wore on, just the opposite phenomenon came into play. Powerboats of every size and description rolling by going as fast as they possibly could go. This normally requires me to head the bow of my boat into the wake or at least to quarter it. On a few occasions, the wakes from passing powerboats have tossed and turned everything in my cabin. All aboard need to hang on for dear life. Not fun.

But powerboaters are not the only sinners here. More and more frequently I note sailboats trying to sail down the channel into the marina. These boats did not appear to be having mechanical or any other kind of difficulty requiring them to be sailing in an area where sailing is neither prudent nor considerate. No, the captains of those boats were trying to make a point. And in demonstrating their wondrous sailing abilities, all other vessels trying to negotiate the channel safely, had to beware. They had to give these errant sailors a wide berth where the "berth" is narrow. On other occasions, I witnessed some sailboats sailing in such a way as to "demand" the right of way over fast moving powerboats when there was just no need to do so. These sailboaters did not endear themselves to anyone at those times.

The idea of recreational boating is to get away from the hurly-burly world ashore, get out on the water, and enjoy the peace and serenity of it all. The Bay is a very big place and has plenty of space for us all. We all need to take a breath now and then and make extra sure that the "road rage" we see, and are sometimes victims of, on the roads around the metro area, is not allowed to creep into our boating activities.

A little courtesy by all of us will pay enormous dividends.

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I'm certainly not the first person to say this, but driving through Myrtle Beach stresses me out. Just the same, rough water gives me a glaring headache. Motorcycles weaving around the congestion, near the 27th miniature golf course heightens the road rage. Jet skis doing the same thing in the waterway turn into boat rage.

There are places now, like the clogged hour spent on Highway 17, where the number of people and motorized vehicles per square mile is absolutely ridiculous.

Let's not even mention what has happened along the side of that road, except that I don't need any more outlets to buy flip-flops, hermit crabs and WWF beach towels in one fell swoop.

Just the same, out on the public zone of deep-enough water, there are mosquito-like things made by all these "personal watercraft" companies that are about to send me into fury.

I want to tell folks, just because you don't have a prop on your fluorescent, two seater -- and I hesitate to call it a boat -- jet thing, doesn't mean you can just go anywhere! Combine a couple of feisty youngsters screaming through our creeks on Sea-Doos with a stiff, northeastern wind and I'll need therapy at the end of the day.

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By MATT SCHUDEL

It's the first thing many of us notice when we move to South Florida. Not the heat, the humidity or the hurricanes. We expect those things. What we don't expect amid swaying palms and balmy beaches is how much ruder life here can be compared to wherever we came from. We ask friends and co-workers coming back from vacation, "How was the trip?" And, for an hour, we hear how much nicer the folks are, say, up in Michigan or North Carolina or even New York City.

With selfish, rude and downright mean behavior sweeping civility under the carpet generally in this country, Staff Writer Matt Schudel examined the problem plaguing Florida -- and all of society -- in this cover story. His essay, subsequently reprinted by our sister paper, The Orlando Sentinel's Florida magazine, prompted hundreds of letters, calls and e-mails statewide from readers weary of rudeness on the road, in business, in popular culture. Teachers called to request reprints of the article to share with their students. Radio talk shows picked up the topic. "The article should be required reading for all students, grade school, high school and college," wrote one reader in Deerfield Beach. "It should be required reading for all citizens of this country." Did a kinder, gentler South Florida come out of the essay? We continue to hope.

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Many ordinary, law-abiding drivers are seized by a cold, silent panic whenever they look up and see a truck or SUV filling the entire width of the rear-view mirror. There's something menacing about these high-riding vehicles, and the arrogant, cell-phone-yakking road warriors behind the wheel know it. They honk if you dont turn right on red, they push you faster than you want to go, they ride your bumper until you move aside. Then, as they speed on past, they flip you the finger.

It's the sign of our times.

But it's not just trucks that are the problem, and it's not just traffic. A mean-spirited selfishness has taken hold of our culture, and it wont let go. It finds its purest voice in the Spanish expression Viva yo! long live me.
It's my world, so get out of my way.

Even if their numbers are small, those selfish louts with their big cars, loud voices and bad manners will continue to make our lives miserable for one simple reason: There's nothing we can do about it. The old values of courtesy, politeness and respect have been trampled under.

The indignities of the road are compounded with further indignities at work, at the movies, on the radio, from the profane mouths of strangers, in battles between neighbors. Pretty soon you've got more than a headache. You've got a national crisis on your hands.

THE DICTIONARY defines incivility "as a lack of courtesy or politeness. " Once you're aware of it, you see it everywhere. It's practically the defining ethos of modern life. It has become so pervasive that, according to a 1996 poll for U.S. News & World Report, 89 percent of all Americans consider incivility a serious problem in our society. More than three-quarters of all Americans believe it has gotten worse in the last 10 years.

Incivility is the root of some of the most pernicious problems in our culture. Perceived slights on the street dissing, or the showing of disrespect have led to murder. In Brooklyn a teen-ager was shot to death when he didn't greet a second teen-ager with a high five. A young man was beaten and stabbed in a grocery store in suburban Bethesda, Md., when he complained to two men cutting ahead in the checkout line.

But incivility is in the corporate board room, as well, with hired-gun CEOs taking home million-dollar bonuses while putting people out of work. Its in the halls of Congress, where public servants defy decorum to berate the president and their colleagues. Its a problem with doctors, who are often cited for rudeness in malpractice suits.

We suffer through incivility in the form of talking and excessive rustling in movie theaters and concert halls. Renowned classical musicians Sir Georg Solti, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Jessye Norman have interrupted performances to admonish their audiences on proper concert conduct.

Incivility is in the lyrics of the music we or at least the young listen to. It's in every home disturbed by domestic violence. It's in stores where clerks don't say "thank you." It's on bumper stickers that read "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student" as if parents were proud of raising a generation of thugs.

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Its a serious thing, then, incivility. This open, dirty secret of American life is beginning to prompt some deep thinking. President Clinton, citing a "toxic atmosphere of cynicism" - and perhaps stung by attacks on his own character - has convened the National Commission on Civic Renewal, headed by former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn and onetime Republican Cabinet member William J. Bennett. At least three other commissions, led by nationally prominent political figures Lamar Alexander, Bill Bradley and Patricia Schroeder, are dedicated to civic and cultural renewal.

No one can say why weve become such an uncivil society, but there are plenty of theories. In For Shame: The Loss of Common Decency in American Culture, James Twitchell, a professor at the University of Florida, links incivility with a lack of public shame and private responsibility. His chief culprit? Television advertising.

Another scholar, Nicholas Mills of Sarah Lawrence College in New York, attributes the "triumph of meanness" to the huge income disparity between average workers and corporate big shots.

Carol Tavris, a Los Angeles psychologist and expert on anger, says incivility has grown worse because Americans blow up too easily.
"It's not that people are any angrier than they ever were," Tavris has said. "The problem is that we let people get away with it. We celebrate aggressiveness."

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Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote an essay called "On Manners," and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, compiled a book of etiquette. Emily Post published her all-purpose etiquette book in 1922; the 75th-anniversary edition, by her great-granddaughter by marriage, Peggy Post, came out last year.

As early as the sixth century B.C., Aesop was passing on this moral message in his fable of the lion and the mouse: No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. (Contrast this with the autobiographies of Dennis Rodman and rap star LL Cool J: Bad As I Wanna Be and I Make My Own Rules.)

But if prescriptions for politeness are ancient, then incivility has to be just as old. In the Greek myth of Oedipus, two men met on a road, each driving his own chariot. The older of the two demanded that the younger man Oedipus get out of his way. Oedipus wouldn't budge and ended up killing the man, who turned out to be his own father. It may have been the first documented case of road rage.

VIRTUE DOESN'T seem to be much in demand today. Tune in to any prime-time TV show, and you'll hear a litany of bad jokes about sex and adultery. But aside from sitcoms, there is another kind of program that seems to be a direct assault on civility.

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SPORTSMANSHIP WAS once valued as the highest aim of athletics. You played with skill and determination, yes, but also with grace. You showed your opponent respect.

Sports remain one of the few realms of modern life in which etiquette is required. If you are whistled for unsportsmanlike conduct in football, you are penalized 15 yards. In basketball, you receive a technical foul.

But the very officials who are meant to keep order have come under attack from the players they judge. It goes far beyond Roberto Alomar's spitting in the face of baseball umpire John Hirschbeck, or Dennis Rodman's head-butt of a basketball referee.

Officials have been beaten and, in some cases, knocked unconscious by high-school and junior-high athletes. Sometimes coaches and parents even get in on the mayhem. Two years ago, a referee in a Philadelphia basketball league for 12-year-olds was so savagely beaten by coaches and fans that he received a concussion and a broken bone near his eye. A Wisconsin district attorney was removed from office after he pushed a referee into a wall during his son's junior-varsity basketball game.

Spectators have followed the examples of their heroes, creating an atmosphere of obscene intimidation in the nation's arenas. Profanity has become so widespread that many parents are reluctant to take their children to games.

For some reason, Philadelphia has a reputation for having the most abusive, foul-mouthed fans in the country. Last October, two basketball fans argued over who was the better point guard - Seattles Gary Payton or Phillys own Allen Iverson. The dispute escalated into gunfire, killing two bystanders.

At an Eagles game on Nov. 10, a mob attacked a fan wearing a jacket with the name of the rival New York Giants. (The Eagles weren't even playing the Giants that day.) When another man came to the rescue of the Giants fan, he was beaten by five men and suffered a broken ankle.

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CIVILITY IS, ultimately, a moral question: How do we treat others? That's why the issue reaches deeper than you might think at first. Civility is part of the fiber that binds our culture. If it frays and breaks, how long can a civil society survive?

Many people attribute the breakdown of public morality to a weakening influence of religion. But, in fact, churchgoing and belief in God are at their highest rates in decades.

In our hurried times, maybe were just too busy to be polite. Is civility simply out of date, like crinoline skirts and top hats?

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Good news is the fishing has been A+, bad new is boat rage. It’s been a great weekend for fishing. Fished local area (Pt loma to Torrey Pines) area all weekend. Hundreds of cuda (all released) and a handful of very nice yellowtails (all eaten). Everything was perfect. Hope all who fished had a great time. Just one request and hopefully if you read this and it doesn’t apply you just smile and agree, the ocean is big enough for you to pass by another boat without cutting off lines. We can all try it. Not so damn close. When you see a boat drifting or fishing make sure you give enough room when passing. Twice this weekend boats passing to close cut me off. We all see bird works and we all get very excited but use a little common sense and courtesy. We will all benefit from it.

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