Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty S
You know, all of the above actually.
Ken i read some of your material a few years ago regarding boat check stops, dont remember much but people like me learn from people like you. (And im still fantacizing about buying a nice little ocean boat, ie 18’ trophy)… and then i encounter places like The Narrows on Lake Manitoba and suddenly i refresh those ocean boat buying lusts!
Ken you stated a few years ago that you “debated” with folks at a station regarding your ocean boat not being in a sane category as run of the mill freshwater based craft? Or something??
What about evening/night driving with a boat, what if station closed?
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Marty I was stopped several times by great and sometime overzealous seasonal boat checkers, and was told several times that 'ocean only craft are exempt from deep search because there are no zebra mussels in the ocean'.
Generally when I am stopped they ask where I was, I tell them Pacific, they say have a nice day. I give them twizzlers or peaches and they give me shamois. Good interactions. I gladly let them inspect water intakes and props, ensure the plug is out, and the REAL good ones check to see if the trailer bearings are cool to the touch. Extra treat for them.
Now in rare cases I got the other kind. One I remember was a heavily motivated training seasonal worker at Vermilion with a German Shephard with massive nails that she absolutely insisted HAD to go inside my boat to inspect, to which I refused and watched her face turn tomato red. I was already inspected at Hinton, but she did not care. I told her that I had been informed ocean boats were (maybe at the time?) exempt, and she could inspect the bottom of my boat, the props and intakes, but I was not moving the coolers, traps, gear, so she could stick her face into the live wells.
She huffed and puffed and whined about not being able to train her dog or her new summer crew and I told her to look behind us, there were a half dozen little boats waiting to be inspected plus a couple drive by's while she was being important. I did not tell her about them by the way.
I have NO issue at all with any inspection station, they are doing I would hope a good job and these mussels are a real problem. The issue I have is multiple stops on the same day. Now I do not even go past the Vermilion station, which is not on my way home anyway, AND is on the wrong side of the double highway. I actually drove past it east, then back west just to be compliant, then back east again.
Now on the way home I have to pass a couple stations so I always get them to sign a note saying where and when I was inspected so I am not pulled twice.
If the stations are not open they are not open. That being said the last time I came home I slept in the weigh station parking lot at Hinton and waited for them in the morning. They said 'ocean boat?' I said yep, they said take care drive safe.
