Free Republic

SOUTHWEST HARBOR — The manager of Dysart’s Great Harbor Marina blames a downturn in business on the Maine Revenue Services’ efforts to enforce the use tax on boats. Letters sent to marina customers by Maine Revenue Services (MRS) stating that boat owners might owe a use tax were not well received, according to Micah Peabody, manager. As a result, some of those customers cancelled their plans for tying up at the marina this summer. “We lost some serious revenue,” Peabody said. Maine law requires any boat less than one year old docked in Maine waters for 30 consecutive days or...

Support S. 2766/H.R. 5949, the Clean Boating Act of 2008 Did you know that a recent court ruling about pollution being dumped from commercial ship ballast water will also require all recreational boats to get permits by September, 2008—despite the fact that 99% of recreational boats do not have ballast tanks? Boats and ships are different, and shouldn’t be treated the same. These costly permits—intended for commercial ships and supertankers that have brought harmful invasive water species into U.S. waters—are being developed right now to tax your boat’s engine cooling water, bilge water, and even deck runoff. This will seriously...

(The high price of fuel has boating enthusiasts spending more time anchored and less time with the motor running) Down on the boat docks, fishermen and weekend sailors are getting keeled by high fuel prices. Marina gas generally sells at about 50 cents a gallon more than auto fuel. By the peak of the power-boating season, in July, boaters could pay nearly $5 for a gallon of fuel that in some cases lasts only a few miles. Even now, a few hours of fishing on Lake Michigan costs George Artka several hundred dollars in fuel. He keeps his 39-foot power...

By Ann Shibler Published: 2008-04-07 New "anti-terrorism" rules ordered up by DHS for those who fish the Great Lakes are causing a wave of dissent. While still leaving our southern border wide open, the northern border will be protected by stricter security rules heavily enforced by the DHS, particularly for those tall-tale-telling anglers. Follow this link to the original source: "Going fishing? Pack your passport" COMMENTARY: Starting with the 2008 charter fishing season on the Great Lakes, and particularly impacting Lake Erie because of its geography and popularity among anglers, fishermen will now have to have their passports or two...

I wrote the following on FR in April 2006Another working man's boating disaster is on the way. The economy is good; but the high prices of marina fuel, marina slips, boat insurance, maintenance, is going to kill boating for a lot of working people starting this coming season. I see a repeat of the early 1990s, when I moved from the Boston area to Boston's south shore. I went to a local marina and asked to get on a waiting list for a boat slip, I knew it would take years to get in. I was laughed at, the marina...

A young girl is dead after a boating accident on Lake Travis Saturday. It happened just after 7:00 p.m. in Paradise Cove. Texas Parks and Wildlife says the girl and her father were traveling at a high rate of speed when their boat hit the wake from another boat. Their boat went airborne and came down hard enough to crack the hull. Both the girl and her father were thrown from the boat. She suffered head trauma. He has a broken leg. Both were taken to Brackenridge Hospital. She died from her injuries. The boat kept running at high speed...

In the summer of 2004, Beth and Ken Cone boarded their Sundeer 60 Eagles Wings in their home port of Waukegan, Illinois, sailed across the Great Lakes and out the St. Lawrence Seaway, and have been cruising the world ever since. The latest post on their website, Vancones.org, concerns an episode of underbody sabotage attributed to one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep, the giant squid. While visiting Papeete, Tahiti, the Cones met up with their old cruising pal, Shigeo Kitano, whose progress on a recent passage from the Galopagos to the Marquesas had been impeded by an...

From the Law Offices of Paul Hurd PRESS RELEASE U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE DECLARES RECREATIONAL BOATING AND FISHING ILLEGAL ON MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND AMERICA’S OTHER NAVIGABLE WATERS In the case of Normal Parm, et al v. Sheriff Mark Shumate, of East Carroll Parish, (Civil No.3:01-CV2624; United States District Court; Western District of Louisiana, Monroe Division) United States District Judge Robert G. James has declared it to be criminal trespassing for the public to boat, fish or hunt on the Mississippi River and other navigable waters of America, affirming the arrest of fishermen and boaters utilizing the waters of the Mississippi River....

Calling all fishermen. the Great state of Tennessee has long been known for its call to service and has earned the title, "Tennessee Volunteers." Well it time to step up to the plate for all of the fishermen out there as well as the lady fishermen. The American Bass Anglers, along with the Paris/ Henry Coounty Chambers, The Stewart Co Chamber, Northwest TN Tourism and the Friends of Paris Landing need your help to take the solders of the 101st Airborne Div on a fishing trip to be held on KY Lake out of Paris landing State Park on Oct...

Boats collide during 'poker run'; 5 dead JUDI BOLAND Associated Press WILLIS, Okla. - Steve Dover was vacationing at Lake Texoma when he saw two speedboats boats take off for a poker competition. They never returned. Dover said he knew something had gone wrong when he saw the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and other emergency vehicles. The boats collided during the High Roller Poker Run on Saturday. Four people died at the scene and two were flown to the hospital, where one later died, according to the patrol. "There was just floating debris," Dover said. "We've seen life vests, we've seen...

KEY WEST, Fla. — A 13-year-old boater was arrested Monday after authorities said he hit and killed a 6-year-old snorkeler, then sped away. The 6-year-old was snorkeling off Key West with his father and a sibling next to their 22-foot motorboat when he was struck, said Lt. Steve Acton of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. An 18-foot skiff sped over the boy, then crashed into his father's vessel, causing it to sink. The driver paused momentarily before taking off, Acton said. Authorities found the skiff tied to a dock at a home and arrested the 13-year-old driver. He...

Another working man's boating disaster is on the way. The economy is good; but the high prices of marina fuel, marina slips, boat insurance, maintenance, is going to kill boating for a lot of working people starting this coming season. I see a repeat of the early 1990s, when I moved from the Boston area to Boston's south shore. I went to a local marina and asked to get on a waiting list for a boat slip, I knew it would take years to get in. I was laughed at, the marina operator told me he had a waiting list...

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police say their search for a missing Cecil County teenager has become a recovery operation.“As far as the Natural Resources Police is concerned, everything points to the worst,” said Sgt. Ken Turner. So far, search efforts have failed to find the 15-year-old last seen Thursday afternoon in a canoe in the Elk River. “He was reported missing around 6:45 p.m.,” said Turner. The search covered every possibility. “We searched air, land and water until 1 a.m., then started back at 7 a.m.,” Turner said. On Friday, the search was increased with the addition of K-9...

LAKE HAVASU, Ariz. - A Quartz Hill man died in a boating accident Saturday at Lake Havasu when the lake craft he was riding in hit another craft head-on. The accident took place shortly after 1:15 a.m. near the main channel of the lake, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Department. While the lake, a popular resort on the northwest portion of Arizona, had had a few accidents over the weekend, the time the accident took place was odd, a department spokeswoman said. "This is not a normal boating time," spokeswoman Trish Carter said. "I have not been informed as...

A radical new propeller pulls rather than pushes boats through the water Drop the sailor’s cap and put on some racing goggles. With its new Inboard Performance System (IPS), Volvo Penta is boosting the comfort and white-knuckle fun of yachting....

This is a great sight for fisherman. http://www.fintalk.com/

A boat party in an exclusive area of Long Island Sunday night was interrupted - when a severed human hand mysteriously dropped out of the sky onto the deck of a boat, police said yesterday.

<p>Folsom, Sacramento County -- Mike Farr dived off a friend's ski boat into Lake Folsom moments after his 11-year-old son sank below the churning waters while bodysurfing in the vessel's wake.</p> <p>"I swam as deep as I could and as far as I could," said Farr, his voice cracking. "I expected to catch an arm, but there was nothing."</p>

<p>Saddam: French media mogul MEDIA monolith Hachette Filipacchi, already fearing an anti-French backlash, has a bigger problem: Saddam Hussein owns a $90 million stake in its parent company. Saddam owns just under 2 percent of Lagardere SCA, the French company of which Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., publishers of Elle, Car & Driver, Women's Day and other titles, is a unit. His shares are held by Iraqi-controlled Montana Management, based in Geneva. Saddam's Hachette holdings first came to light when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and the UN Security Council along with the French and U.S. governments acted to freeze Iraq's assets. At the time he was the second-largest shareholder in Hachette SA, controlling 8.4 percent of the company. Fearing a backlash, Hachette brass voiced their intention to buy the Iraqi strongman out, which most people assumed had been done long ago. In fact, Saddam still has his stake and it's currently worth $90 million, a Hachette rep confirmed to PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "Under international sanctions, blocked assets are being held until future direction from the UN and applicable governments," the rep said. "Those assets are frozen." Since Saddam has no representation on Hachette's board of directors, he has no influence over the company, and Hachette's spokeswoman assured us the firm is unafraid of a backlash. Some American Elle advertisers we contacted yesterday had no idea Saddam ever owned a slice of Hachette. "We don't know anything about it," said a rep for MAC cosmetics. Donna Karan's people had no comment. Reps for Coach, Estee Lauder and Banana Republic were similarly in the dark. In 1990, when the Saddam-Hachette news broke on "60 Minutes," publishers of Hachette magazines placed emergency calls to top advertisers in a bid to keep them from leaving. They also established a "circulation crisis group" to deal with subscribers who wanted to cancel over the news. Hachette has been testing consumer reaction to the fact that it is a French company, to determine whether "guilt by association" will harm it, Hachette U.S. CEO Jack Kliger told Media Industry Newsletter. Americans "feel comfortable buying [Elle] just as they do with say, Evian and L'Oreal, and dining in French restaurants. Remember too, there are Americans who oppose war with Iraq."</p>