By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

NAPLES— Boaters don’t always realize that bow-riding is illegal.

Bow riding got brought up at the two most recent meetings of the Naples Board of Selectmen.

On Monday, Selectman Kevin Rogers said over the weekend a group of people were talking about how people go down the ladder into the water while the boat is operating.

Chairman Jim Grattelosaid if people can think up things to do on a running boat, they will do it. Bow-riding is one of those activities, which involves the unsafe behavior of being outside the rails while the boat is in operation, he said. Grattelo mentioned that a fatality occurred after someone who was bow-riding fell off the boat. 

“On the way here, I stopped at Muddy River Bridge and yelled at someone riding the bow,” Selectman Ted Shane said.

Two weeks earlier, during the June 27 meeting, the board previewed a water safety video produced by Naples Marine Safety (NMS) and bow riding came up.

In early June, an anonymous business donated $700 for NMS to finish the water safety videos. That was done. 

“All four [videos] start and end the same way.  All the information is presented just about the same,” Hubert said.  

“The goal is to have all the marinas and rentals to use them,” he said. 

Eventually, there will be links so that people can watch the safety video before renting the boat or jet skis, he said. 

The board viewed the video on operating jet skis. 

Grattelo asked if the video on boating warned people not to bow ride. He had seen bow-riding occurring on pontoon boats over the last weekend in June.   

“There were lot of people riding on the bows of boats. And, there were lot of waves on Long Lake because there were a lot of boats on Long Lake,” Grattelo said.  

Hubert said that marine safety does take notice of this unsafe activity. 

“I got 21 stops for bow riding this weekend,” Hubert said. 

During the meeting on Monday, Hubert had not yet compiled the statistics from the weekends in July.