Grouchy old men?.... Not really....mostly a different perspective on life forged by experience.
One can embrace tech and use it regularly but still enjoy traditions and old school methods.
It's recreational boating.... with no medals awarded or pay raises for exceptional performance..... Just personal satisfaction.
Wifey B: I admire experience. I have no problem with knowing old school methods. However, I do have an issue when those who have old school methods automatically put down new technology.
Sometimes those of old schools have very selective memory. Easy to cite when someone using newer technology had issues. But easy to forget all those who bounced around locks and docks, who ran aground, using old school methods but lacking experience or diligence. We've always had boating mistakes and technology isn't the blame. Every new boater lacks experience, by definition. Some seek training, some don't. Go to a lake and watch the newbies trying to back their trailer at the ramp or see how many forget to put the drain plug in. Easy to ridicule all the newbies but better to assist and advise. One of the best things TF does is guide people to training and while the training may differ, that guidance toward it would have made sense 40 years ago, does today, and will 40 years from now.
Pods and joysticks are a popular target but the wrong one. It may be true that many inexperienced boaters jump on them although I know long time boaters who have as well. However, there have always been new boaters and always been those who jumped in without adequate training. Fact is, those very boaters are better with thrusters and joysticks than if they didn't have them. The problem isn't the technology. The problem is people jumping into boating without any training and that's not a technology issue.
If the boat has thrusters, I use them. If it has joysticks, I use them. I can dock without either, but better with them. If it has twins, I use them. I've only handled a boat with pods twice and it was ok, but I wasn't overly impressed. However, with more experience with them, I'm sure I would have picked up on additional attributes. Now, one place where many of you could dock better than me and that's single engines. Outside our RIB's, I've never owned a boat with singles. I've trained a little on one but not enough to become expert. I understand the principles, but I lack the experience of others. On the other hand, I'll take anyone on with twins and technology. I'm betting I can out handle most of you with jet propelled RIB's too. Doesn't mean I'm smarter, just used them a lot more and learned. Now, I also don't know how to operate a 600' commercial ship either.
We all have our areas of less or greater experience. I don't have it at operating 7 knot boats and the unique issues there dealing with tides and inlets. However, I have more offshore experience and crossing large expanses of water experience than many. It's natural. I've seen some 30 year captains from large commercial ships who were totally lost when they jumped to operating a smaller recreational boat.
Boating is an easy entry recreation. Always has been. Always been a lot of failures of newbies just buying and taking off in their first boat. That's not technology. I'd say on lakes we're actually 1% better than we were as now at least most states require a minimal boating course. At least newcomers are exposed to a little bit of information. Should there be a driver's test like on cars? Probably, but then would you object to the additional $20 registration fee? We could make entry into boating more difficult. However, that could be very dangerous for boating in general. That could lead to fewer new boaters and even turn boating into a recreation for the privileged. I took the time, expended the effort, sought the training to become a licensed captain and to continue to upgrade but I'd hate the thought of that being necessary for a recreational boater.
I think we all need to be careful about putting down those with less experience or training than we have. We need to be careful about criticizing technology. We need to become more knowledgeable with our own equipment and technology. And the one thing we need to do is something I think TF'ers do a great job of and that is encourage training and education. I wish the rest of the boating community did as good a job at that. I see part of the sailboat group doing so but a large portion of sailboaters telling people to just jump in and take off across oceans because so and so did it and survived. Unfortunately, most new powerboaters don't start with a group like TF. The dealers and brokers often just care about making a sale and don't push them to get training. It's the entry boater who jumps in, may not take an online boater ed course, but is off boating with 15 minutes of practical instruction from the salesperson. It's to that salespersons benefit in making a sale to say how easy it is.
Many of you are very lucky in that you grew up boating. I'm lucky in that I married into it and I got hundreds of hours of training by my hubby starting immediately.
On the whole, boating is a pretty safe recreation. Has it's ups and downs, but then what doesn't. To those of you who think some of the coastal boaters are horrific, you should just go spend July 4 on a lake somewhere. You ain't seen nothin' yet till you see that. I'm glad to see safety and training as an issue discussed on TF, just don't like the sidetrack that somehow says the problem is technology. The problems are training, experience and sobriety and attention to operating boats. Now, I'm going to take the helm on this beautiful boating day as we run 35 knots off the coast of South Florida.