Topic: Safety OI | Bass Cat

Participant

This was our second OI, we had a nice time, really enjoyed the community and met some very nice, helpful folks. That makes me a little hesitant about mentioning this as the number is so small, however safety is something we need to take serious and we witnessed a couple things on the water at take off and something while fishing that was dangerous. The majority of folks, probably well over ninety-five percent were nice, polite, helpful and safe, then a very small minority, probably well under five percent were not as safe as what they could of been. I dont know if they dont know better, have limited experience and dont understand the dangers of their behavior, dont care or simply didnt realize what they were doing. I know I make mistakes and am sure we all do at times, but the instances we witnessed seemed to be folks that just did not care. I dont know what the answer is, but a couple thoughts I had, are to move the barge out a little further to allow more room, maybe make the flights smaller. Insist, not just ask, but insist that folks idle in once reaching the patrol boat and insist they dont take off until past the patrol boat. Along with that perhaps have everyone sign something and recieve a copy of instructions on the procedures when registering. Then penalize or eject folks that seriously violate safety rules. I am not talking about folks that make a legitimate mistake. I am talking about the very few that just dont care. I know that no matter what you do, you are always going to have one or two that are unsafe, however we still need to do what we can. Agian, this was just a very few and they dont represent most BCB Owners, as most BCB Owners need to be applauded for safe behavior, however these few do endanger the rest of us and who knows, enough dangerous behavior by those very few might run a few folks off or worse yet end up getting someone hurt.Last edited by Fisherman74 on May 4th, 2009, 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Bass Cat Boats

Keymaster

We stress idling at every instance between boats. Trying ot get that cooperation in a flight is hard. We have considered an ooze off of some type and may figure that out. The largest problem is the sound drowns out in the cove. You can hear the PA on the bridge, though cant hear it well on the point. Plus the Siren was tied up this year, and that we need to fix. The boat crew tried to tie both PAs together and while the sound was better, the siren is a must to shut people down on the take off. We did have a very few that were in a hurry, though from our perspective is was not very compromising and we are out there and see all the flights depart. Most usually watching the boats as they depart. The largest problem this year was boats crossing instead of moving to the lower side of the Pontoon boat. They wanted to come out of the cove and go straight across the bow. This was compromising those in crisscrossing and those directions were in the take off flight. Up River to the up river side, and Down River to the down river side. The boat should move to the side of the pontoon as directed, and then the out going traffic would not cross. The new comers do tend to get in a hurry. Not the ones who have been here usually, it is those who are seldom tournament anglers and the adrenaline is in their early morning veins. Duly noted, and the siren will be in place next year. That Whooooper sound tends to get heir attention.