At the beginning of May, a major change to North Carolina's boating laws will go into effect, but those targeted by the law have hardly responded.
Boaters 25 years old and younger will need to have boating safety certification in order to operate a vessel with a 10 horsepower or greater engine.
In anticipation, local chapters of the U.S. Power Squadron and U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary have increased the numbers of boating safety classes offered, but so far they've hardly had any response from those affected by the law.
Raleigh's Tom Taylor of the Raleigh Power Squadron said the law change has gotten the attention of a lot of people older than 25.
"I tell them they don't need it, but then they go, 'I'll take it anyways,' " Taylor said.
It's much the same at the state level. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, which will be offering the course every month in every county through August, had fewer than 900 students take the course through February.
"What's going to happen in May?" asked Phil Vasko of the Coast Guard Auxiliary's Cary Flotilla. "They'll be screaming for the course."
Courses are being offered by the Wildlife Resources Commission around the state, local chapters of the Power Squadron and the Coast Guard Auxiliary, Lighthouse Marine on Lake Norman and through approved online courses, which are offered by several companies.
The certification, regardless of where it's coming from, must be approved by the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators. Law enforcement officers may write warnings for first-time offenses in the first year, but after that, violators will have to comply and pay court costs (there's no actual fine for the citation).
Eventually, the state will offer a proctored exam without the course, but Chris Huebner, boating education coordinator with the commission's Law Enforcement Division, doesn't think most will be able to pass it without having taken a boating safety course.
"They're going to have to really know their boating laws," Huebner said.
The law was put into place by the state legislature and initially would have required that all boaters eventually take the course.
"What we're looking for is that everybody has a minimum understanding," said Robert Sweet, Power Squadron's National Safety Officer, who, alongside representatives from the Coast Guard Auxiliary, spoke in favor of the law before a joint committee of the N.C. House and Senate in 2008. "Everybody needs to be able to communicate in order to be safe."
Spreading the word
Raleigh's George Malindzak, the Power Squadron's education officer for most of North Carolina, said the state could do a better job of advertising the new rule, suggesting that the state take out billboards along major routes to North Carolina's coast.
"It's a little alarming that people don't know about the law," Malindzak said. "The state needs to be a little bit more aggressive with their advertising. It's probably in their budget."
The state's boating education budget is $225,000, and Huebner said the state has done its due diligence. It has produced public service announcements, which have been sent to every major television station in the state. It has produced posters that have been sent to all licensing agents in the state and related businesses. It has published frequently asked questions flyers, which are being sent out with state boating registration forms.
"We've done way more than a lot of other laws that have been passed," Huebner said. "I don't see billboards for no texting when driving. ... We've tried to do what we can do."
Putting it off
Huebner, like many others, think that people are just procrastinating.
"We're getting a lot of complaints, people fussing about it, but we aren't getting a lot of people taking it," he said.
Still, most of the response from the public has been positive, Huebner said, though some don't think the rule is necessary.
North Raleigh's Tim Willis said the rule goes too far.
Willis, with family roots in coastal Carteret County, which has a strong boating tradition, said the rule should have only applied to those 18 years old and under.
He took one of the courses offered by the Cary Flotilla of the Coast Guard Auxiliary with his four children, ages 11 through 25, so they'd be legal.
"As long as you're not drinking alcohol, the worst thing you can do is run aground," said Willis, who spoke highly of the flotilla, if not the new law. "You're not going to kill anybody. You learn the rules of the road. If you take two trips out on the water, you're going to learn most of what you're learning in [the course]."
Huebner points out that the law was wanted by the boating community.
"The boating public asked for this," he said.
And there are plenty who feel that boats shouldn't be treated any differently from automobiles.
Worth the effort
Smithfield's Trey Bates, a senior at West Johnston High, is taking a more extensive course offered by the Cary Flotilla, which, aside from covering the basics of boating safety, will help prepare him for a career in the Coast Guard when he graduates. He has no qualms with the requirement.
Bates, also with roots in Carteret County, doesn't think the law overreaches, and he was raised around boats.
"It's a great change, anything to keep people safe on the water," Bates said. "I'm still learning every time I go out there."
He has seen people do stupid things on public waterways, nearly wrecking expensive power boats.
"Too much money, not enough sense," Bates said, the owner of a 19-foot Boston whaler, a retired Coast Guard skiff, that his grandfather picked up second hand.
But for every young boater eager for boating education, there must be many that don't even know the law is going to change.
"I know I'm going to get a ton of calls in May," Taylor said.
