Marking Rock obdtruction in small lakes

[Michel Paquette]

First off, I would like to inform this forum that I have graduated from virtual boating to RL boating. I have purchased a 1975 StarCraft Chieftan 22.
The other weekend I was boating in the area that I grew up in during my childhood and teen years. I notice that a couple of rocks that are just below the surface, that we use to go put a plastic buoy on, were not marked. When was talking to the nearby camp owner, I asked him why he was not marking those out to warn boaters of the danger.
He was telling me that the person who places a buoy on a rock becomes responsible if any boater hits that rock.
Can somebody please clarify this????

Michel

[chris mac]

My parents live on a smallish lake, with lots of power boats. Everyone marks the rocks by their docks, for personal safety. There is a lot of weekend traffic on the water from the campground and just about every weekend someone hits a rock because they don't know what the buoy means.
I don't know about legal, but i doubt you would be responsible for someone else's stupidity.
If you run through someone's marked crab traps and wrap your prop, can you sue them?
Edit - when someone pulls them to shore after they trash their prop, they usually state they were curious what the buoy was for

[Jim Cate]

If I was doing it, I'd try to use a proper isolated hazard buoy... not that most lake sailors would know what the topmark meant. But it would at least be correct usage.

Out in the woop-woop, we've used inflated wine box bladders, string and a rock anchor to mark hazards. This has been for our own usage, and not likely to be seen by anyone else.

Jim