Quote Originally Posted by Todd2 View Post
Don't take this the wrong way, because I'm not a tournament hater and I'm not talking about this particular case because I wasn't even there. But I'd rather take my chances all day with random pleasure boaters than be anywhere near a huge tourney blast off.
Todd, if I were not involved in the tourney, neither would I. But the main topic is about safety. Generally when a tourn. takes off, there are very few other boats around. I don't ever remember an accident being reported from the take-off of an tournament. I can understand not wanting to be washed ashore if you are fishing nearby when this happens. But it generally doesn't last very long. But by about 11:00 on a weekend, the pleasure boaters are in massive force and it does not let up.