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Boating Safety Record Holds Steady in Maine

September 05, 2007 - Don't list your pontoon boat on eBay just yet.

Despite a high-profile, high-speed, fatal boating accident on Long Lake in Harrison earlier this month, the statistics indicate that recreational boaters face no more danger on inland waters in Maine now than they did 10 years ago.

In the August 11 accident, two people died when a 32 foot long cigarette boat powered by two 435 hp engines, around dusk, smashed a smaller boat in half. Editorial pages and local officials across the state began calling for limits on either speed or horsepower, and depicted Maine lakes as being overrun with dangerous speeders.

Regardless of whether more regulation is the correct move, this accident was an aberration, atypical for Maine's inland waterways, according to statistics from the state and federal government and local boat dealers.

Voters are not looking for bigger, faster boats in Maine, according to Dave Hamlin, owner of Hamlin's Marine in Waterville.

"I haven't seen it -- it's more family boating... more pontoon boats being sold," he said.

Hamlin sells high-powered performance boats, but not many.

"One reason, I'm not stocking them," he said. "The call isn't there, so I'm not stocking them."

Manchester boat dealer Rob Brown of Clark Marine had a similar perspective.

"I wouldn't say boats are getting smaller," he said. "But in my business, we sell mostly pontoons, and they tend to be life in the slow lane."

He does not necessarily oppose new speed limit laws on Maine's lakes.

"I don't know of any place in the state of Maine where you can drive a car 90 miles an hour," Brown said. "So why can you do it on lakes?"

Statistics indicate that registered boats are not becoming significantly larger, or more numerous, according to the US Coast Guard and Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife:

- The number of boating accidents and resulting fatalities has remained relatively constant since 2002. That year, boaters reported 57 collisions; the number dipped to 55, and 41, then to 46 in subsequent years before bumping up to 56 last year -- an overall decline.

- The number of registered boats in 2006 was 125,000 -- down 3000 from 1996.

- Average boat size is not increasing dramatically. The number of registered boats in the 26 to 40 foot class, the one into which the Long Lake cigarette boat falls, has remained relatively constant.

- The number of registered boats more than 65 feet in length rose by a total of six in 10 years (51 in 1996, 57 in 2006).

Statistics in the state make it difficult to analyze trends in average horsepower. The number of boats with more than 50 hp rose from almost 40,000 in 1999 (the earliest figure available) to nearly 45,000 in 2006. However, these numbers become less useful in light of the fact that the Long Lake cigarette boat was powered by a total of 870 horses, and the State's tracking system lumps together all boats powered by 50 or more horsepower. The smaller, 14 foot boat that was destroyed in the accident had 115 hp.

Also complicating the numbers is the fact that many out-of-state boaters failed to obtain the required sticker from the state before launching on Maine waters, according to Inland Fisheries and Wildlife information center worker Ralph Brissette.

"If you took a trip around Sebago Lake and looked at all of the out-of-state boats and kept track of how many had the sticker, it would be maybe one in 10 boats," Brissette said.

The number of wardens patrolling Maine's waterways on any given day has remained relatively constant for the past couple of decades at around 35 to 50, according to Major Greg Sanborn of the Maine Warden Service.

"This accident grabbed the headlines because it was very tragic and involves speedboats," Sanborn said. "Every year we lose boaters. And the overwhelming number of boaters that we lose is from drowning."

Sanborn said that one of the most important precautions boaters can take is to wear life jackets. Educating the public about boating safety constitutes a large part of the duties of wardens and other law enforcement officers who patrol Maine's waterways, according to the Kennebec County Sheriff's Deputy Nick Oettinger, who, along with fellow Deputy Jesse Duda, discussed the issues on a recent boat patrol around Messalonskee Lake.

"It's kind of a public-relations thing, where we help boaters, educate them about boating safety," Duda said. "We're not out to write 100 tickets."

The day was overcast, with few boaters out on the water, but a couple of residents waved from the shore as the boat passed, a practice the deputies said was typical. Since the fatal accident earlier this month, the two deputies said they have focused more on making their presence known to owners of faster boats, Oettinger said.

"Looking back at that crash in Naples, you kind of have to wonder if he had stopped and thought that there might be patrols out there, maybe he would have slowed down," he said.

This article first appeared in the Morning Sentinel, August 27, 2007

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


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