Re: WHO'S LIABLE IF I DO GET HIT?

> Batteries may get damaged by sea water or just get depleted. I have
> one on my canoe to power my trolling motor. I changed to AGM though
> because they are water and leakproof.

Batteries in boats are generally protected against sea water or of a type 
that is not easily damaged, like the AGM battery you use.  As it happens I

use them too.  As for getting depleted, that's what chargers are for.  By 
the way, your battery is much more likely to become depeleted than mine. 
Perhaps it Kayakers that are leaving them.

You do know that, by putting a trolling motor on your kayak, you're 
classified as a power boat, right?

> Many people that are into motorboating are poorly educated and
> couldn't care less about the consequences of their actions. I think
> MOTORBOATING IS LARGELY FOR COUCH POTATOES THAT WANT TO
> HAVE A DEGREE OF ADVENTURE IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS.

Yet, in the same post, you identified yourself as a power boater.

> My anchor weighs 1 1/2 lbs... Terrible threat to the reefs. ;)

It's almost exactly the same threat as mine.  An anchor that sets and
stays 
in place, does very little damage to anything and there's already a law 
requiring people to anchor in adjacent sand areas rather than on coral. 
Chain and line, on the other hand, can do quite a bit of damage, whether 
attached to a kayak or different kind of power boat.

> How much you need for a motorboat?

Which power boat?  I have three and, as I've already mentioned, a kayak. 
Anchors for each boat is designed for the boat I use it with.  My smallest

power boat uses an anchor just like the one I use for the kayak.

> But motorboat pollution contributes to "the soup" out there too. You
> can even smell the gas, and I doubt it that it would be safe to swim
> in the intracostal anymore.

What you can smell is not harming the reefs.  As for what you doubt, I 
suggest you learn a bit more before getting it wrong again.  If you're 
talking about human waste by those on boats, I'm afraid you'll have to 
include kayakers in  your list.  It's legal for either of us to use the 
ocean as a bathroom.  It is not legal for me to discharge my head directly

overboard or to discharge my holding tank within coastal waters.  The
sewage 
outfalls in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, on the other hand, pump

millions of gallons of partially treated sewage and chemicals onto the
reefs 
every day.

> The most common types of boats involved in re****ted accidents were
> open motorboats (45%) . . .

You know that includes your kayak, right?

I've been boating in south Florida for 54 years.  I've never had an 
accident.  Imagine that.

Lee