Skippers tickets, Are they working?

[trout1105]

I have just got in from an outing on lake Kunnunurra and i passed several other boats and the Only boat that followed the pass on the Starboad side rule was a charter boat ALL the other boats wanted to pass on the Port/left side and were completely clueless as to which was the correct side to pass.
These were all power boats and the skipper Must have a WA skippers ticket to operate the boat, Obviously they havent even learnt the basics of navigation from the course that they did to get their tickets

[cripesamighty]

I remember years ago when I got my skippers ticket a couple of the guys kept passing on the wrong side during the course. They eventually got it right and received their ticket, but it must have been ingrained in them. I saw one of them the following week on the Swan River in his cabin cruiser, and yep, he was passing boats on the wrong side again. A licence means nothing sometimes!

[trout1105]

It really isn't that much of a problem in open water as I just give them a Wide berth But in channels and rivers it can easilly lead to a collision.
My boat weighs in at about 1.5 tonnes so the idiots in their dinghies and small runabouts won't do me too much damage But I would hate to run into them and cause injuries or even death just because they can't be bothered to learn how to navigate Safely.

[donh54]

Like a lot of "qualifications" nowadays, the training organisation gets paid for passes, not failures.
Check out some of the nongs that are driving B-doubles/road trains on the road!

[Chops]

It’s easy to get a license these days as Dohn says. The driving on the right like the USA was the easy bit,,, it was all the lights and signals I was apparently going to encounter in Sydney Harbour was the hard part. I did try to explain I would never be there, let alone at night.
If I jumped in a boat 🚣*♀️ now, I’d be stuffed I reckon.

[incisor]

even internationally ticketed masters are bloody hopeless

the number of times I've seen / heard very large ore carriers or fuel carriers etc etc negotiate a pass in narrow channels as red to red or green to green and then go the other side defies logical explanation...

surprised there isn't more accidents than what there is.