THE HARBOR COLUMN:

Ahoy.

King Neptune is looking kindly upon all boaters so good boating weather and sea conditions should continue for cruises and evening sails.

I really enjoy sailing in the harbor on a warm summer night with a slight breeze blowing along the harbor. I’ll let you in on a little secret: Many times I will turn off the engines on a motor yacht and drift down the channel on a summer night.

However, motor yachts usually have all the required navigational lights on a single switch. So when drifting, I cannot turn off the masthead light, since I am not under power by an engine or motor. I know I just lost many of you who have no idea what I am talking about when referring to navigational lights, so I will digress to my column two weeks ago about mandatory boater education.

That column seems to have made many of you hit the reef with your keel, and I have heard from you on both sides of the idea. I find it very interesting to hear opinions as to why or why not boaters should have mandatory education or licensing.

This is a hot topic and I think it is one of the most important for boaters. It is important because boaters can now help set the course before the waypoints are plotted for you. I see four factions of boating groups who want to design the standards and requirements. Where do you see yourself in my rankings?

The first group that I want to mention are the ones that do not want any form for education or licensing at all and have their heads in the sand. These are typically the old-timers or those who just hate any authority changing the rules regardless of the empirical data. These are the boaters who you see breaking the rules or lacking the seamanship skills especially when docking and, when taken to task, their only defense is that they have been boating for “fill-in-the-blank” years.

The next group is in favor of educational testing; however, they are the easygoing boaters who are the majority of weekend boaters. The test would be a multiple-question boating quiz that one takes at the DVM or on the Internet. Though many in this group will ask why you need to know what professional captains have to know to get their license.

The third group requires that everyone attend a boating class with a final exam similar to the Coast Guard Auxiliary and Power Squadron programs. I like this group; however, I would like to see a scaled-down version. This group consists of the heartfelt boaters who answer at least 80% of the boating quizzes in the magazines. This group is comfortable with testing and understand performance standards to operate a vessel.

The final group is a minority on the extreme side in any activity, whether boating or baseball. This group believes that if boating law and boat handling was not your minor in college then you should not be at the helm. This group wants to see extensive testing above the required testing for a Coast Guard Master’s license, and uniforms are required by the skipper. Unfortunately, this group will get its way if boaters do not speak up.

There is one special-interest group that I did not purposely mention in this list. Those that want to ban any form of boating on the water, plus they want to ban automobiles, too — go figure.

I have not included skippers’ proficiency on the water as this is a very difficult test. Does someone have to skipper a varied of different boats and sizes to obtain a license? What if I have a 25-foot boat that I can dock with inches of the cleat, do I have to prove proficiency on a 45-footer too?

Safe Voyages.