sports

outdoors with Lou Rodia f

Boating Safety Calls for Common Sense . .. 1 . . ■ ■ . •_ I 4- . nritVl Vric UTAn ctiff t A milkp with to make

In ylifetimfe>Qf fishing and ■ hunting, we have been on the brink of disaster more than a few times. Sometimes the fault was mine An error of judgment almost resulted in flipping my outboard a few years back On another occasion, I misread appraoching lights as being on the

George Redding Bridge and pulled out in the dark in front of a commercial boat heading out to sea. The big boat missed me by inches, but the fault was mine alone. Another near miss came in Maryland when I came out of a small creek into the Annamessex Canal and again, in the dark, pulled

out in front of a speeding boat which was operating at high speed with not lights. An equipment breakdown put me within inches of the end of Cold Spring Jetty on another occasion. AS MY OUTDOOR life unfolds, we are more and more aware that there are, always will be and always were certain numbers of tragedies which are inherent in the sport. Someone always wants to test i the limits. Going out on a really rough day may be fun for some, and perfectly safe for others — if their I boats and their attendant < skills are such that they i can handle the situation. For others, the boats are inadequate and/or their I skills are not up to the I situations they might face. I . No matter how much the i message is preached, and no matter how many warn- < ings are sounded, someone A always finds a way to have u an accident. N Most recently, two or four passengers on a small < cabin cruiser died in a I boating accident in I Barnegat Inlet. Rough seas 1 contributed. Perhaps judg- 1 ment errors also figured in. * Cause and blame are only < important if they help pre- i vent additional tragedies. ] CONTRARY TO popular opinion, most boating ac- 1 cidents come on perfect < weather days when the < visibility is good. Smaller j bodies of water generate I more boating accidents < than do big bodies of water. < Most boating accidents oc- i cur on the weekends when i there are lots of boats I around. Amd, most sur- I prising of all, it is the ex- ] perienced boatman who i has the bulk of the ac- 1 cidents rather than the I newcomer in the sport. 1 Boating accidents hap- < pen where they are least

expected and to people who seem to be the least prone to having them. Statistically, none of us is safe because of our years on the water. In reviewing accidents such as the Barnegat Inlet tragedy, there is usually a call for some kind of a boating operator's license. And, almost as quickly, there is a cry to keep this ' from happening. WE HAVE always fallen on the side of the antilicensing group. First and foremost, operating a boat and a car are totally different.' The best car operator in the world cannot automatically do a good job at the helm. We object to licensing operators mainly the license cannot administered fairly to that everyone who is licensed is a capable operator. How would you /test boat operators? •. It is one thing to ask a Oliver to take a road test. The conditions are fairly definable. Roads have lines. There are traffic and stop signs give warning of dangerous intersections. Weather changes some things in driving, but the changes much more predictable. yASK A DRIVER to park his car between two traffic cones and he either can or cannot. Ask the same perto put his boat between pilings each day and each try is under totally different conditions. Tide and wind conditions, wave action and a host of other things enter into it. Much of this comes with experience. And, to make matters worse, it changes for EVERY boat since no boats handle identicalthe same under the same conditions. There are absolutely too i

) many variables in ; to come up with a set of standards which would i adequately test every i operator under every condition. Licensing is a far > cry from the right answer, t as we see it. i The best and most logical i law which should govern boating is common sense. And, to get the maximum >* results, more and more education should be made i available to the boater. We ^ have always felt that the# I best way to get people to : conform to a set of rules is to make them want to. This applies to boating safety. WE HAVE BEEN asked I about youngsters and boat handling. Should we let a I teen-ager who could not get a driver's license because of his age go out and run a i highpowered speed boat? ; I fish with a friend in ■ Maryland who started i operating his father's boat before he was a teen-ager, i He was crabbing commercially after school and summers by the time he was 12

spending money. I met him 30 years ago when he was 14. By then he had backed a boat further than most of us will run one frontwards. My own youngest son could dock my boat in the mill-race waters which pour in and out of the doc areas of what used to be Driftwood Marina much, much better than I could. At 10, be could put the boat .into the dock and not touch #a piling on either side with little more than a boat length of maneuvering room no matter which way the tide ran. I always had problems. AGE CERTAINLY should not be the criterion. Nor should ability to pass a simple test be the criterion. What should apply is the law of common sense. And, to develop this, boaters should lean heavily on each other for the learning experience. They should take the Power Squadron or Caost Guard Auxiliary courses, and they should adequately equip their boats for safety. And, perhaps the most obvious way to educate is to restructure the New Jersey Marine Police units so thai they spend a lot more time educating boatmen. While it still may be necessary to ticket someone who flagrantly violates the law, in many instances, the time would be better spent teaching people the rules of the road, safe boat handling and courtesy. A lot of the problem is in \ attitiide. Since we all think \ve are indestructible, we few provisions for the eventuality of an accident. We stow the life jackets securely so they won't get dirty and wet. Getting to them quickly is the second consideration. On some boats, finding them would be difficult and getting them out from under the gear which is stored on top of the jackets would be impossible in an emergency. Good radio equipment, lights that work, a good set of distress signals and a motor that is functioning properly all add to a safe trip. But the biggest and best aid to safe boating is being alert, sober and aware of the conditions which you will be facing.

^ Cape May. County . ALMANAC < f NOVEMBER

MOON PHASES/POSITIONS The Moon's affect on the Tide is greatest when closest to Earth (in perigee! and when in direct alignment with Sun 4 earth (full 4 new moon phases) On and about these dates, low pressure systems and /or strong u^nds (depending upon direction) may result in flooding, and extremely Moon Phases First Quarter Nov. 3# Full Moon .» 8 Last Quarter 16 New Moon 22 Perigee 20 AP®K«* 4 TIDE TABLE Computed for Cape May City beachfront, for other areas, see Correction Times DATE HIGH LOW 21 Wed 6:07- 6:26 -12:09 22 Thu 6:54- 7:15 12:21- 1:02 23 Fn 7:40- 8:03 1:10^ 1:52 24 Sat 8:26- 8:50 1:57- 2:39 25 Sun 9:13- 9:40 2:45— 3:28 26 Mon 10:01 — 10 30 3:30- 4:14 27 Tut 10:50-11:26 4:17*- 5:02 28 Wed 11:44— 5:10- 5:55 29 Thu 12:18-12:35 6:06- 6:52 30 Fri 1:12- 1:27 7:13- 7:48

CORRECTION TIMES Compute approximate times of high 4 low water for your area by adding or subtracting the /ollowing number of minutes for each tide phase in the Tide Table LOW HIGH Great Egg Harbor Inlet Minus 12 pluslO Ocean City <9th St Bridge) plus 35 plus 22 • Corson Inlet (bridge) plus 21 plus 7 Sea Isle City (Ludlatn Thoro Bridge) plus 66 plus 43 Sea Isle City Beach minus 2 minus 21 Townsend Inlet plus 21 plus 4 Seven Mile Beach plus 15 0 Stone Harbor (Great Channel Bridge) plus 43 plus 40 Hereford Inlet (Anglesea) plus 19 0 Wildwood Beach Minus 2 minus 17 West Wildwood (Grassy Channel bridge) plus 46 plus 43 Cape May Harbor plus 1 minus 4 Five Fathom Bank plus 11 plus 1 Cape May Point „ plus 46 plus 34 ^ McCne Shoal ^ plus 28 plus 22 r' Delaware Bay Bayshore Channel ^ (Bay-Canal Junction) plus 31 plus 36 j Miami Beach ^ plus 75 plus 71 Dennis Creek Entrance plus 98 plus 84 Brandywine Shoal Light plus 77 plus 52 /

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Sea Isle 1 Tourney Winners I TOWNSEND"$-1NfcET<— Sea Isle City , un conjuncX tion with the- DSa^vare' : Valley Surf Anglefs Club held its annual fishing tour^x nament recently. Thirty teams and 31 individuals signed up this year. i The winners were: first, the Beach Haven Fishing Club; second, Victor AA Fishing Club; Third, i Women's Surf Fishing Club. IN THE individual competition the following were prize winners: first, David McKernan; second, A1 Crudele and Michael Lazz; third, Darren Dunn. The tournament started at 8 a.m. and ended at 3:30 p.m. with the presentation of awards and door prizes. The largest fish was caught by Gary Born of Berlin, N.J. who received the Mayor's Trophy and the most points for fish caught. The Delaware Valley Surf Anglers Club donated $50 to next year's baby parade and also presented , a plaque of appreciation to I Sea Isle City. Wjsh I Zurawski accepted on I behalf of the city. | In Net Clash CAPE MAY — In volleyball action this week, the Cape May Men's Power League champs Lighting Dimensions are pitted against arch rival The Potter 9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov." * 21, at the elementary school gym on Lafayette Street.

, A Gift to the | AMCRICAfl CANCER SOCIETY 1 MEMORIAL T PROGRAM goesa long way in cancer control.

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