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Kicking the Cigarette Habit on Maine's Lakes

August 22, 2007 - The Sunsation "Dominator" is a 32 foot, V-shaped projectile, powered by twin monstrous-cubic- inch engines capable of propelling the ton and a half vessel at speeds illegal on most paved highways. It's built for the ocean, the preferred transport for a climactic scene from Miami Vice.

Why these vessels, nicknamed "cigarette boats", are allowed to ply Maine's inland waters is a good question.

A person in Saturday's fatal boating accident on Long Lake was captaining a Dominator. Hurtling along in 4 foot swells off the Atlantic coast, it can provide an adrenaline laced thrill at more than 70 mph. In the twilight on a skinny lake, as this past weekend shows, the speed can be deadly.

The Dominator, owned by a Massachusetts man, sliced through a 14 foot vessel and killed two people -- a well-known local musician and his girlfriend, the mother of three.

Although the details of the accident remains under investigation, the final resting place of the Dominator -- precisely 134 feet, 9 inches onto shore, right between two cottages -- shows speed was involved. The sound of this waterborne javelin crashing into land must have been frightening.

Not more paralyzing, however, than it's roar toward where Raye Trott and Suzanne Groetzinger were anticipating a peaceful evening's meteor shower. Instead they were struck by a comet.

Long Lake isn't suited for boats like the Dominator; the lake's tiny waist line only makes it a great drag strip. Maine regulators must now consider whether any inland body should allow these high-speed vessels. Even a Sunstation executive -- a native Mainer -- says they are too much boat for zipping across Maine lakes.

On an expanse of ocean, speedboats are maneuverable. Once sharing water with kayakers, canoeists, anglers and stargazers, though, they are a menace. Jet skis get the attention, but controlling these boats is equally necessary.

Speed limits are ineffective. Understaffing is one of the chronic complaints about the Maine Warden Service, and unless wardens stage like state troopers alongside the turnpike, there's little chance speed can be closely policed.

Horsepower limits are more reasonable; many smaller Maine lakes and ponds have them. A reasonable limit, high enough to allow most lake vessels, would force offshore racers back where they belong: salt water.

It's irrational to ban jet skis, as Maine has done in many places, and let these faster, louder, dangerous and more annoying cigarette boats to roam unfettered. Saturday's accident begs regulators to review the presence of offshore speedboats on lakes and ponds, with an eye toward prohibition.

This is Maine, after all, not Miami. Life is a little slower here.

Our lakes should be the same way.

This editorial of first appeared in the Sun Journal, August 17, 2007.


Lakes:
Regions: Sebago, Belgrade, Rangeley, Moosehead, Sanford, Bangor, Katahdin, Embden, Houlton, Lincoln, Jackman, Presque Isle, Allagash, Calais, Mid Coast, Downeast


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