[Capri25]WYC Capri 25 Fleet Capt Letter

Tue Jun 7 10:10:10 CDT 2005

Bruce:

I would also like to point out that when we are on the lake, each of us
represents the entire club. Not only are we all responsible for
following the rules of navigation, but also for extending courtesy to
other boaters. I am disturbed that someone from our fleet would "give
the finger" to a boat that had young children on it. 

Beth Frampton

Technical Communications

Uni-Systems, LLC

4600 Lake Road

Minneapolis, MN 55422

Office: 763-536-0632, ext. 213

Cell: 612-251-4925

bframpton at uni-systems.com

  _____  

From: capri25-bounces at lists.wyc.org
[mailto:capri25-bounces at lists.wyc.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Tam
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 11:15 PM
To: capri25 at lists.wyc.org
Cc: Scott Brigham
Subject: [Capri25]WYC Capri 25 Fleet Capt Letter

To All WYC Capri 25 Fleet Members

We have just finished our fifth weekend of racing and the weather is
finally getting to the point where shorts and T-shirts are replacing the
pants and fleece jackets.  The warmer weather is also bringing out more
boaters, which brings me to the main subject of this letter,  When the
weather was cooler the only traffic on race days was primarily other WYC
sailboats all going in the same direction.  Now we will be sharing the
Lake with power boats, kayaks, fishing boats etc. and we need to
practice all the navigational rules and courtesies required on a busy
lake.

Hopefully you are thinking  'I always follow the rules' why the letter?
Unfortunately WYC received a letter detailing at least one lapse in
navigational rules.  

The body of the letter follows:

I am writing this email asking for your support.  Last weekend, on
Sunday, May 30th at approx. 3:00 PM, our boat was almost stuck by one of
your Capri 25 members boat.  The incident occurred in Wayzata Bay as we
were at temping to go through the buoy markers.  

 As we approached the markers, there were three Capri 25's that were all
under power, driving side by side of one another, taking up the entire
channel.  As we all know, this is illegal and dangerous. As we
approached to enter the markers, we noticed that one of the Capri 25's
was not giving proper right of way to us, so we put the boat in idle,
hoping to let them pass.  As the Capri 25 got closer (approx. 40 ft.
away) we noticed that the skipper was to busy gossiping with the boat
next to hers and was not paying attention to where she was going.  Once
we noticed the skipper not paying attention, we started yelling to the
skipper, to watch out. Unfortunately, the skipper did not hear or see us
until her boat was approximately 10 feet away from ours.  Once she
noticed our pan iced voices and saw how close she was, she quickly
turned her boat with approximately two feet to spare to avoid collision.

 On our boat we had three small children, all under the age of 4.  If
her boat would have stuck our boat at the speed of which she was
traveling, the likelihood of someone getting injured or possible death
is high.  Her negligence of paying attention to proper boating rules not
only jeopardized her entire crew, but also my entire family.  At the end
of the incident, we were given the finger by one of her crew members.

As I said above, I am asking for your support.  I am asking that you
talk to your respective fleets, make sure your members are following
proper boating rules, and most importantly, paying attention so
accidents like this do not happen.    

 The lake is for everyone to use and enjoy. At the end of the day, I do
not want to become a statistic nor do I want any of my family members to
become statistics because someone is not paying attention or following
the proper laws.

In closing I would like to use an quote that my company's safety
director uses in his summer driving newsletter.

 Aggressive driving only leads to more aggressive driving. In general,
the more courtesy you give to others, the more you get back

Bruce Tam

Capri 25 Fleet Capt

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