short 1 lifejacket

long story short we were out on the delta 1 lifejacket short after using them for extra bumpers at the beach, they got left in our buddies boat, anyone wanna take a guess at how much that ticket was?! Fourhundred ninteysix dollars and twenty five cents 496.25!!!!! i opened that letter up this evening and almost fell on the floor doesnt that seem a little much to anyone else? i know you cant put a price on life but daaaamn.... what a way to end a day=(

holy moly!! good thing i am anal about that stuff. my buddy just throws a ton of vests in his boat whether it's cga or not. mostly not. god, i am glad he's never been pulled over....

If it was San Joaquin County Sheriffs it is only typical of their BS zero tolerance boating policies, if you see those guys be on your best behavior and kiss that a$$.
I had to endure 4 boardings and a breathalyzer over the last 2 years because of some loud passengers. One thing that will save the agony of the tickets and long lectures about boating safety is to get that Coast Guard sticker before the season starts. And a box of glazed with sprinkles.

Buy a 6 pack of the orange short bus lifevests from walmart, keep 'em together in one compartment. Makes it easy when they check.

mike, go to court, but don't contest it. the fine will more than likely get lowered to a reasonable amount.

my buddy got a ticket for sitting on the gunnel while going thru the no wake zone at tiki lagoon. it came in at 600 bucks. he and the boat owner went to court and the fine was lowered to 50 bucks.

oh yeah, and do what porkchops suggested. my friend did the same thing and never got a ticket for lack of flotation device.

WOW, I was like six jackets short out at Oroville one time and my ticket was only like $110. It was a few years ago though.

lol fizuck that we were going through a canal during manatee season down here florida and it said minimum wake which is no wake worded diffrent rite we have a little prop wash behind the boat but just barely just bubbles and a little ripple coming off the bow which is standard on a 26 foot boat well they come to give a ticket they run there 32 foot contender with triple 250's on the back wide open to pull us over i wonder who would have killed more manatees we got a 1500 dollar fine my parents took it to court got the whole fine dropped

Mike H: Just out of curiosity, was there anything special that got the Sherrif counting life jackets to start with?

A lot of people in the boat?
A bit loud?

I recommend carrying a lot of extra life jackets all the time. Ihave a bunch of orange cheap jackets stuffed in various places. At least two throwable cushions (I have two because it is common for one to be used as a fender or water toy). Always a couple of guest ski jackets.

Where on the Delta was this? That's a lot of $$$!

we had 8 orange life jackets 1 approved neo and 1 non coast guard approved. it was right behind skibeach where they have the ferry crossing. i thought i was plenty past the 5mph zone because there was no floating bouys or anything so i took off. apparently there was a 5mph sign on the leve a ways down behind some bush that i didnt see. so he was pretty cool about it we were actually 2 jackets short and he said that the throwable floating device had to be "on top" of everything not burried at the bottom of the ski locker and that because ours was on the bottom that was a ticket as well. he told me if he wrote me up for everything the ticket would be about 2000$ if he wrote me up for everthing but he said how about just the one jacket short ticket. (which i couldnt pass up at that point)
the whole thing is really messed up i got the actual ticket 9-27 and they just sent it in the mail like a week ago with the due date this thursday. its just really frustrating when you go out on the weekend and see them harass everyone but not untill there done watching the bikini contest on the beach.....

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we had 8 orange life jackets 1 approved neo and 1 non coast guard approved. it was right behind skibeach where they have the ferry crossing. i thought i was plenty past the 5mph zone because there was no floating bouys or anything so i took off. apparently there was a 5mph sign on the leve a ways down behind some bush that i didnt see. so he was pretty cool about it we were actually 2 jackets short and he said that the throwable floating device had to be "on top" of everything not burried at the bottom of the ski locker and that because ours was on the bottom that was a ticket as well. he told me if he wrote me up for everything the ticket would be about 2000$ if he wrote me up for everthing but he said how about just the one jacket short ticket. (which i couldnt pass up at that point)
the whole thing is really messed up i got the actual ticket 9-27 and they just sent it in the mail like a week ago with the due date this thursday. its just really frustrating when you go out on the weekend and see them harass everyone but not untill there done watching the bikini contest on the beach.....

I love how they tell you it's raining while they pi$$ down your back!
Classic Deputy move "we could really be a-holes but were only gonna be little aholes" (so you don't show up in court to contest it and ruin my day off).

By the way I think the law is that you cannot go more than 5 mph with boats docked or anchored within 300 ft of the shore. Maybe that was the law he thought you broke. Isn't that 5 mph zone way past ski beach? Just wondering.

damn, what water nazis up there...jeez, it really takes a lot for them to be sticklers like that down here...

i think in the 6 years i've been boating we've been searched at most one time. and that was because the crash flag was stolen by the little gnome and we were using an OG orange pfd for a flag. actually, the ranger didn't even look for safety vests, he just gave a short lecture on flags and the actually gave us one.

(Message edited by madchild1 on October 17, 2005)

"It's just really frustrating when you go out on the weekend and see them "harass" everyone..."

You really have nobody to blame but yourself. If you don't want to be "harassed" then don't bring attention to yourself or break the law...

machew: i was heading towards ski beach from the ferry crossing but i wasnt closer then 300' i didnt know it but i was just inside the 5mph zone when i took off, the floating bouy was gone but the sign on the levee was there and i just didnt see it behind the bush/tree thing

oscar: not once did i ever blame anyone else, just stated that it was a shi**y situation the way it played out

(Message edited by seaswirlmike on October 17, 2005)

just counted mine i would have been one short last weekend..i forget that the 2 nicest vests on the boat arent approved... wont make that mistake again.. cant afford too

on a lighter note.. my best friend blew by a chp doin 85 in a 55 just above legget... he was headin down for the weekend to go boardin and had a hyperlite sticker in his window and his board in the back..when he told the cop where he was headin and that he was goin boardin the cop was totally cool he turned out to be boarder himself and was impressed with all my buddies new gear.. they talked for about 15 minutes and he let him go without a warning.. just seems like most of the time were talkin about law enforcement its because there di*ks.. just thought id post a good story..

Richard,

There are no doubt plenty of those stories too, but no one talks about them because they are not controversal (sp). I have has way more good than bad experiences. Actually only one bad, and it turned out pretty good. Almost ran into the Ranger's boat on the ski course. Pulled me over and gave me a good a$$ chewing. Could have done WAY more, but I did not turn into a dik, and he cut me some slack. About a week later I talked with him about it, and things are cool between us. Last thing I want is to be someone's pet project. Not bad for 5 years on the same lake, 260-plus hours on the Bu since Feb.

As far as vests, like others said, keep more than you need, and don't attract attention to yourself.

Man, is this typical of the delta? People getting pulled over all the time? I guess we're lucky in TN, well, for better or worse, there is no authority on our lakes. You can go through no wake zones as fast as you'd like and not get pulled over. You can teak surf (not suggested, just saying it's possible) and you won't get pulled over. I've never been stopped, ever. It's really scary to think about getting pulled over and getting a ticket like that, whew.

Last year I was on Turner Cut, going past a dock. I knew it was close, so I moved to the other side of the slough, and sped up to minimize my wake. Sure enough, about a minute later, I saw the SJCS in my rear-view. They wrote me a ticket, which would have come out to $327, but I contested it.

I went back with a golf range finder, and the distance was about 190' or so (it was hard to get a good reading while rocking in the boat). I went to court with that, and a picture of the slough, telling the judge at worst I was right on the edge of distance, and I had tried to minimize my wakes impact to the dock. The officer then told the court that the law states 200' from a vessel tied to a dock, not the dock itself. The judge was unfamiliar with boating regs, and didn't have a copy of them in the court, so I was told I would be notified by mail of the courts decision.

2 weeks later I got a letter that told me I was found not guilty!

I guess I am going to depart from the theme her a little bit. I grew up in the delta between Orowoods and the Berkeley Ski Club behind ski beach. A few years ago I heard that the sheriffs funding had been severly cut and they had raised all the fines by almost 10x to replace the lost revenue. After hearing that I tiptoe around these sheriffs like crazy. I have even idled up to their parked boat near ski beach and offered them an ice cold waters my cooler. Knock on wood but personally I have never had anything but positive interactions from these guys. I truly believe that they make the delta a safer place for all of us. It's unfortunate they have had to resort to petty tickets to fund thier existence.

Every now and then a new guy comes along and finds something petty to ticket. I know of two such instances in the past 10 years where a single sheriff did petty things to generate funds. Both instances revolved around the 200' law, it's one of their favorites. I hope we don't have another new guy.

I just wish that they would switch thier focus to wreckless jet skiers or cigarette boaters buzzing around the sloughs at 80mph.

For vests I try to use USCG vests these days. If you put them on the bottom of the pile they tend to flatten out and get more comfortable over time. It also helps if you wear them one size too small.

Mikeski,
I heard the same thing, to add another $.02, a friend of mine is a COCO county deputy and he says that not only did their funding get cut but that the boat has been staffed by overtime hours and the shifts were going to get cut if they did not show more "revenue generation".

So, on Memorial day I got searched for no reason. The deputy stated that "on this holiday weekend we are subjecting a number of small vessels to random searches in order to assure lawful compliance of the boating regulations" (oh, and you have 3 women in bikinis looking as if they want to talk to a man of authority).

To bad Sheriff,they're defense attorneys.

No S#*t!
and No ticket, I was in compliance, thank God.

I am hoping most of us understand or agree that the main goal of enforcement is "safety", and that the funds generated are secondary. I am pretty sure that is the case, although I know it seems like you are getting cited so the PD/SO's can make a buck. The departments only get a small portion of the fines awarded in court (at least here, anyway. May be different other places). Here in So Cal, it is less than 10 percent that goes back to the department. The other 90 percent goes to the courts, which then gets distributed to other areas. I know it does not make it feel any better. Just something to think about. I have made my share of "donations" over the years.

Machew:
I know that on holiday weekends the sheriff really likes to keep their lights on. Having the lights on and talking to a boat will make all the other boats nearby behave themselves. For those who have not been on the delta on the 4th of July there is a LOT of improvement in behavior that is needed!

It is certainly not ususual to be searched for no reason. There is a reasonable argument for doing so. If there was not much of a risk of getting caught you might not be as inclined to have life jackets, fire extinguishers, etc.

If they are going to inspect for "no reason" then it really should be totally random. If they only inspect the boats they consider likely to be in violation then they can be charged with "profiling" and that causes all sorts of issues.

I have been talked to a number of times, never been given a ticket even though a couple of times they have had technical justification if they wanted to do so.

I have found that by making a reasonable attempt to follow the rules and being polite and respectful when they do pull you over goes a long way.

I keep a houseboat at Tiki Lagun, which is on a major traffic route for people returning home from Lost Isle (an infamous island bar in the Delta). I see a lot of crazieness as people are still in the party mode as they pass through the marina. The sheriff hangs out there a lot and I am often in earshot when they decide to talk to someone.

Usually, the boats where the occupants shut up, sit down and are respectful get talked to for a few minutes and are on their way, apparently with no ticket. On the other hand, the guys that want to get in the sheriffs face and be a hard ass are generally taken over to the guest dock and they are there for a while, and sometimes get taken away in handcuffs.

Once I saw a fight break out between the occupants of the boat as the less drunk tried to restrain the out of control drunk......

I have also seen the coroner and ambulances come and take away people that would have been a lot better off if the sheriff had been around that day.....

Rod,
I am in no way implying that the deputies do not need to be there and have previously stated that good behavior is mandatory when dealing with the authorities. I have always been polite, never ticketed, and seem to breeze through inspections because I follow the laws. However, enforcement and fines have increased not because of increasing accident rates but because of decreasing funds. You know it's bad when you have a boat load of Alameda County Deputies on their day off flashing their badges and we're still getting searched.
I do not drink alcohol, smoke dope, or do power turns!
Yet, I still manage to find the law.
It must be Karma for all those stop signs I roll through on the way to work.
I guess we're even untill I get a $496.25 ticket.

By the way has anyone met Rick the D!@k at DonP. Classic example.

I have had two tickets while boating.The first one, I was riding in the fall with a dry suit on. I usually wear my vest underneath. A water cop saw me riding and followed until I dropped, then turned his light on. While on the platform, I asked why he was pulling us over.He said " No life jacket" as I was taking off my dry suit he saw my Obrien Outlaw vest and ticketed my for a Non Approved flotaion device... $89.00. It made no matter that with the vest on under my dri-suit I had more flotation that an approved vest without a dry suit.
The second ticket was on a Mondsy afternoon in the early spring. We were the only boat on the river. Just me and a buddy with no spotter. You guessed it. They spotted us from shore, went and hooked up the jet skiis and rode out to give us another $89.00 ticket. We never did see another boat out that day except the Sheriffs jet skiis...

I got one of those 496.25 tickets this summer for a friend sitting on the sundeck as I idled away from the rocks. SHowed up to the stockton court on a day that wasnt for water issues so they put me in a room with the car violations. Pleaded guilty so I wouldnt have to go back another day and the judge reduced it to $100 and a $20 processing fee.

The little bitch rookie cop driving the boat had no idea how to tie up to us and slammed the boat into ours and got his roof caught on a board and bent the board rack and chipped my wakeboard!!!

How did you know he was a "rookie cop"?