jchovernut
Well-known member
I'm a hovercrafter, & it burns me up when I'm arbitrarily banned from an area open to powerboat use. I operate quiet 4-cycle low-hp hovercraft that are barely perceptible noise-wise. I can't run on Lk Powell or Lk Mead while jet boats, PWCs, & enormous houseboats have free-reign...all because it's a "National Recreation Area" where airboats & hovercraft are specifically banned.
The case before the Supremes involves a navigable waterway issue where any manner of powerboat is allowed, but hovercraft are not. This is in the middle of nowhere! Most moronic of all is the Feds had to access the hover with a tracked vehicle...no environmental damage there...ya right! AND, they made the hover owner haul his craft out on another boat...completely asinine if their main concern is ecological. I'm no 'greenie-weenie,' but it just so happens the SEVTEC style hovercraft I operate are about the 'geenest' mode of powered watercraft!!
Here's one story on the Alaska Supreme Court case:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/19/alaska-moose-hunter-hovercraft-supreme-court-public-lands-national-park-service
The commentary on this piece, & a companion piece in the Washington Post really illustrate the idiocy of he general public...
I'd really like to take my 20-footer up the ICW, but evidently SC bans "Airboats" on the saltwater side of the salt/fresh interface. Water Cops up there consider hovercraft as airboats because the statute is so poorly written that it defines ANYTHING with an air drive as an airboat. A friend of mine in Charleston ended up selling his hover because of the fines the water cops said they'd continue imposing on him.
The case before the Supremes involves a navigable waterway issue where any manner of powerboat is allowed, but hovercraft are not. This is in the middle of nowhere! Most moronic of all is the Feds had to access the hover with a tracked vehicle...no environmental damage there...ya right! AND, they made the hover owner haul his craft out on another boat...completely asinine if their main concern is ecological. I'm no 'greenie-weenie,' but it just so happens the SEVTEC style hovercraft I operate are about the 'geenest' mode of powered watercraft!!
Here's one story on the Alaska Supreme Court case:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/19/alaska-moose-hunter-hovercraft-supreme-court-public-lands-national-park-service
The commentary on this piece, & a companion piece in the Washington Post really illustrate the idiocy of he general public...
I'd really like to take my 20-footer up the ICW, but evidently SC bans "Airboats" on the saltwater side of the salt/fresh interface. Water Cops up there consider hovercraft as airboats because the statute is so poorly written that it defines ANYTHING with an air drive as an airboat. A friend of mine in Charleston ended up selling his hover because of the fines the water cops said they'd continue imposing on him.