zelatore
09-04-2007, 10:26 PM
So I'm setting up for a boat show; moving stock down about 1/3 mile from our marina to the show venue. A coastie pulls up behind me as I leave my dock, follows me to the show dock (idle speed on one motor in a 46 Carver), watches me pull the boat into the the show, then boards me for an inspection. Cute. They go throught the usual BS when I tell them it's not my boat, it's a trade...yada, yada, yada.... turns out the horn didn't work because the house battery was dead so they noted it on the boarding form and left to promptly pull over the next dealer boat coming into the show. I doubt very much if the overboard discharge valve was locked in the closed position either, but when they asked if it was I simply said 'I don't know' and let them crawl around in the bilge - they couldn't even tell if it had a discharge, much less check it.
Better yet, after I walked back to my dock and brought the next boat down, they did exactly the same thing! I could see it coming and knew they'd go right for me. This time I asked them if they got a lollypop if they boarded 100 boats today. They weren't impressed. The show promotor came over and started getting on them asking what the heck they were doing...of course they fed the standard issue line about promoting saftey on the water.
What a crock of BS! As I watched, they had 3 boats there boarding dealers coming in for the show. As soon as they left one, they immediatly pulled over the next. No doubt a lot of these boats didn't have every last piece of saftey gear or 'proper' paperwork as all of them were for sale and all of them were coming from within a mile or 2 of the venue. Strangely enough, they were nowhere to be found over the holiday weekend when our marina was getting pounded by every Tom, Dick, and Harry's wake.
Yeah...a bunch of brokers and dealers queing up to get into a show are the real menice on the water.
Again, what a total waste of YOUR and MY tax dollars!! :mad:
(I still have 3 boats to move in...I wonder how many times I can get boarded this week for no reason?)
Better yet, after I walked back to my dock and brought the next boat down, they did exactly the same thing! I could see it coming and knew they'd go right for me. This time I asked them if they got a lollypop if they boarded 100 boats today. They weren't impressed. The show promotor came over and started getting on them asking what the heck they were doing...of course they fed the standard issue line about promoting saftey on the water.
What a crock of BS! As I watched, they had 3 boats there boarding dealers coming in for the show. As soon as they left one, they immediatly pulled over the next. No doubt a lot of these boats didn't have every last piece of saftey gear or 'proper' paperwork as all of them were for sale and all of them were coming from within a mile or 2 of the venue. Strangely enough, they were nowhere to be found over the holiday weekend when our marina was getting pounded by every Tom, Dick, and Harry's wake.
Yeah...a bunch of brokers and dealers queing up to get into a show are the real menice on the water.
Again, what a total waste of YOUR and MY tax dollars!! :mad:
(I still have 3 boats to move in...I wonder how many times I can get boarded this week for no reason?)