Got a boat? You may need a license.
US officials, wary of terrorist use of small craft, float the idea of licenses for recreational boaters.
from the August 1, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Some boating groups accuse the US of trying to build an onerous bureaucracy that would punish boaters instead of bolstering the Waterway Watch, a post-9/11 citizen action program that taps boaters as eyes and ears on the water.
"What concerns us is that [DHS] is trying to basically use boating safety as a fig leaf to cover their real intention, which is to identify recreational boaters and get them licensed," says Mike Sciulla, spokesman for the Boat Owners Association of the United States in Alexandria, Va. "For the government to suggest that boaters should be required to take classes for national security reasons is ... unwarranted."
Back on the docks at the Oyster Bay Marine Center, sailboat owner John Domenech says such a law must be approached carefully. Would it, for example, affect the ability of his 16-year-old granddaughter to pilot a rubber dinghy around the harbor, he wonders. His friend, Ken Keighron, says "old-timers" should be grandfathered under any new licensing law.
Out in the harbor, a breeze is blowing, cooling off Richard Cassano as he gets his 40-foot sailboat ready to head to Maine. A few weeks ago, he says, he would have been against any federal ID law. But now, after a near-crash with an erratic 50-foot powerboat, he's quick to endorse it – if only for safety reasons.
"There has to be some accountability" on the water, says Mr. Cassano. "Like, you can risk losing your license."
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