Most sail boaters have taken lessons in order to learn how to sail. Hopefully they had excellent instructors that taught them; Courtesy, Rules of the Road along with actually sailing the boat.
Unfortunately many power boaters haven't had that form of training. They half listen to what the salesperson is saying. Reply with a ya yah. hop into that high horse powered boat and drive off, not paying attention to wake damage and so forth. Well maybe not quite that bad... But there they go with little or no training what so ever.
USCG Aux, and other power boat Organizations are doing what they can. But in many areas that is like throwing a cup of water on a forest fire.

I'd have to agree with Boasun that there is far more training generally involved in sailing generally. Most sailors grew up with an older sailor or two as a mentor, or have learned in a more structured environment. This is not the case with most power boaters.

I think a lot of this is due to the greater skill set and knowledge base that sailing a boat requires—after all, harnessing the wind to go upwind requires far more skill than dropping the hammer on the throttle and point the boat in the direction you want to go.

Everyday that goes by my nerves get rubbed wrong by the idiots of the world who either just don't care or just don't have a clue (haven't been able to figure which one it is). The result is that my level of comfort for cruising goes down each time to allow for a smaller kitty to do it on. The way things are going by the time my comfort gets to bottom line there will be just as many idiots out on the water. What's a person to do????

it is not just the non sailors, but a lot of sailors at least where I sail. Couple of weeks ago we are sailing on a run and noticed a race going on. Rather than get in the middle of the race we went on a starboard tack to go around it well away from the racers. One of the boats came out of the race circuit on a port tack and we ended up having to give way to miss them. We were close enough for them to hear us. I told my wife loud enough for them to hear us that " they were supposed to give way as we were on a starboard tack, but I guess they don't know it" The guy just looked at me stupid and kept sailing.

C40EB,
Your on to something. Thanks!

Isn't 'clueless' a word from the 'Vally Girl' movies? Just a thought.

The world will be the same whether I approve of it or not. Concerning myself with the foibles of others leads only to a long list of disappointments in the people I meet.

When some other boater shouts instructions to me, I smile broadly, wave and nod, and yell something in return in gibberish that sounds like a mix of Greek and Norwegian, spoken with a Chinese accent. I can't speak any languages other than broken English, so that's the best I can do.

Then I look forward again and say aloud, "How nice of them to say 'good morning'." Even if I'm alone.

I have no power over the actions of others, but I'm completely in charge of how I receive their antics, and I will not carry them as an injury for even a moment.

I hope they will do the same for me when our positions are reversed.

Well said, Hawkeye.

The more people I meet, the better I like my dog. And I don't have a dog:-)

I'm almost afraid to admit that I am a power boat owner, LOL. However I do agree with your sentiments. I can't tell you how many "clewless" idiots I've seen on the water. Running balls out in a No Wake zone right next to vessels at anchor with Swimmers in the water.

However, I have to say that there is a group of people that are ever worse then average moronic powerboater and that's the PWC owner. These people don't give a crap about anything or anyone it seems. Here's a couple examples:

- My wife and I are trying to get our boat off the water. I just got done sitting in line for an hour at the boat ramp. She sees me getting ready to back the trailer up so she casts off and starts lining up. Out of nowhere this lady on a PWC pulls up and stops directly in front of her. My wife kindly asks her to move so we can put our boat on the trailer to which the woman replies "Shut up B***h!!". My wife, in her eloquent way, retorts with "would you prefer to have your teeth embedded in the bow of our boat?".

- We are out on the lake tubing with some friends and their kids. We start to head in, kids still on the tube, when this idiot on a wave runner decides he wants to jump our wake, totally oblivious to the fact that we are towing a tube with children on it. I managed to kill the throttle in time to prevent the wave runner fromhitting the tube broadside.

Sometimes I wish it was a requirement to have an operator's license to purchase (and register) a power boat or PWC. And a requirement of getting that license is to complete an extensive training course. You know, Kinda like learning to drive a car perhaps??

Why are you paraphrasing Carrie Underwood??