'Airboats. Danger From Noise and Speed' Retirement

Airboats. Danger From Noise and Speed

Hate airboats (70.20.176.85) -

Considering moving to a waterfront home in Florida? Be careful. Airboats in Florida do not have real mufflers on their engines and there is no limit to the deafening noise that they can make - day or night. In addition, noise and harrassment from airboats is used to drive people from their homes if they complain to the authorities.

Citrus County on Florida's Nature Coast is a prime example. Use extreme caution if you plan to buy in Citrus County - even if it is a condo on a golf course. The noise from airboats travels for miles and the sheriff will NOT enforce muffler laws for airboats.

Reply #1 P.J (64.12.116.9) -

Air boats have been around for years and we will always fight for our right to enjoy them!!!!!!!!!

Reply #2 Lew (67.76.116.113) -

It's the same old story. A jackass buys a house next to an airport and then cries about the noise. Airboats are a part of Florida living. If you can't tolerate them move to Oklahoma. I live in Citrus county and applaud Jeff Dawsey's stand on airboat use.

Reply #3 Eric (200.47.172.130) -

I wish you cry baby old farts would just hurry up and die. All you do is look out your curtains and try to find something you can yell at your neighbor for. Turn down, or off your damn hearing aid. You choose to live on a river, you better be able to handle the noise. Yea I know, you bleeding heart people think im harsh. Deal with it and shut the hell up!

Reply #4 Brian (68.205.153.54) -

Airboats have been around for years. They are not going any where. If people don't like the noise they make they do not have to come to Florida. I think putting mufflers on them is pointless.

Reply #5 paul lawrence (152.163.100.72) -

My father used to wrap me up in his jacket and tie me in the seat when i was still in diapers. Airboating is not just a hobby to me, it is a part of my life! I build one of the best boats money can buy, i race them, i adore them and every thing connected to them. People complain of the noise? have you ever heard the deafening scream of a couple hundred thousand brain dead idiots that idolize some football game?I guess Richard Petty's car was real quiet, too!My goodness, I wish those "Better than thou" Communist Yankees would take thier butts back to where they came from, aand leave my BIRTH STATE! and the thing I grew up with, THE HELL ALONE! And the absolute worst is that these people are complaing about something that means nothing to them. I doubt evev 1 percent of them have ever enjoyed some of HIS creations that can only be seen off an airboat!

Reply #6 Daisy (68.204.128.117) -

I think airboats are great. The problem comes in when people are inconsiderate of each other. It is stupid to complain when you buy on the river about boat noise. However, it is equally stupid to make more noise necessary just because you can.

Daisy

Reply #7 FLORIDA CRACKER (205.188.117.202) -

Airboats are away of life for most I was riding my dad boat when I was 3 years old and I am not hard of hearing.There is no danger from noise if you dont like take out your hearing aids.WE DONT MOVE UP NORTH AND TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN DO.

Reply #8 wleemikell (24.110.176.253) -

Okay, first those talking about mufflers and noise need to understand that the noise does not come from the motor on the airboat. Only at idle can you hear the motor. Once the prop runs up, the noise you hear is the tip of the blade breaking the sound barrier as it slices through the air. The same is true of aircraft flying overhead. The sound you hear is the blade and the whistle is the air rushing past the fuselage.

Mufflers really don't make any difference but make the compainers think they are getting something over on airboaters.

With that little piece of physics behind us let me share my opinion.

As for noise. Too bad. There are no restrictions on aircraft and they fly over my house all the time; jets, warbirds, private... you name it. As far as I'm concerned, if the boats are operating on a navigable waterway, the noise complainer can sell the house and move. I'm sure the house is worth just as much now as they paid for it then... Oh, you mean you were a land speculator and someone sold you some great waterfront property and you bought it without even looking at it. And so you left your quaint little row house in Jersey for the Yankee dream... to move to FL and show us how you do it up there.

No tears here.

Reply #9 Frank Lindsey (70.149.126.66) -

It's a fact that Air Boats disrupt wildlife breeding areas, especially birds like Snail Kites who are on the endangered species list. It's pretty shocking in this day and age of water sports and recreational boating, that these craft still have not come up with an effective way to make them run quieter. To make matters worse, alot of people relate to these boats as if they were "Choppers" and so the macho mentality rides along with this crowd that feeds on this kind of adrenaline rush. I am tolerant of RV vehicles, swamp buggies, or even jet ski's, however not one of these craft can compare to the noise these Air Boats cause. Thats why when you ride in one of them, you need to have Headsets on to protect your ears and hear what the tour boat operator is saying. I can't see why the manufacturer of these boats can't come up with the answer to this problem that everyone can agree on and live with.

• Florida wildlife photography

Reply #10 Fetz (65.33.211.175) -

If anyone comes up with a quieter prop for airboats, you'll be a millionaire, and the aviation community would like to talk to you as well. There are airplanes out there using new quieter props, but I believe it will be a few years before the technology trickles down to the airboat industry.

Reply #11 Chip MacNeill (64.136.26.230) -

The first air boat I ever saw was on Gentle Ben Dennis Weaver and Dennis Weaver was truckin!

Reply #12 ABM (68.202.122.129) -

Welcome to Florida and the many ways to enjoy our wonderful outdoors and numerous waterways. Airboats are part of the culture of Florida. Technology improvements in propellers and other things are helping to reduce the sound impacts. While mufflers may not eliminate the propeller sound, they do reduce the sound of the airboat. We live off a lake in a heavy airboat utilized area. We hear the airboats, just like we hear the train, the fire department and sheriff sirens. We hear them launch and move out to wherever they are going and then several hours later we hear them come back in. It is part of being on the water, just like some lakes enjoy jet skies, big bass boats, ski boats, jet boats, etc. The waterways belong to everyone to enjoy. So if you plan to retire in Florida and live one a waterway, plan to enjoy all that offers - the gators, the wild birds and so much more.

Reply #13 Nikki (74.246.121.198) -

Airboats are absolutely amazing! If you can't stand the noise, 1. don't live in Florida, and 2. it's your own fault you lived near a river "cause it was pretty" or "relaxing". Of course both are a great reason, but NOT if you can't stand to hear boats constantely year round.

Nikki

Reply #14 suthern Son (70.46.102.242) -

GO HOME SNOW BIRDS!!! OR LIVE ON A GOLF COURSE!! and those are just wastes of good pasture land!!

Reply #15 tim FL native (138.210.217.249) -

Turn I-95 into a one-way four-lane... HEADING NORTH! I'm sick of hearing these whining yankee a-holes!

Reply #16 Luke Taylor (64.90.218.50) -

Airboats are and have been a big part of my family and always will! A lot of great memories of past on family and close friends include them, "LOUD AND NOISY" AIRBOATS! As a father of two boys' I'm also passing on the airboating tradition and making lots of new memories with them. That's going to be a lot of noise makers!! I gues all you anti noise people will have to keep on moving! OH yah, just for the record we are from the north country and we love anything with horsepower that makes gobs of noise, so Michigan is not for you!!! Noise is everywhere, "Suck it up people" !!!!

Reply #17 Jake Bennett (65.35.248.113) -

Move back up north you Yankee ! It's because of people bitchin like you that keep people from bein able to take their airboats out duck hunting early in the morning. Deafening noise?? quit being a !

Reply #18 MOexpat (72.135.107.85) - 08/10/09 16:09

I'm a Midwesterner who moved to Florida for a while. While there, I learned that the overwhelming majority of Florida is not even remotely close to what visitors and people outside the state think it is.

In the major metros, Florida has become an artifice covered in concrete and landscaping. If you want to live a life that reminds you of things back home, and keeps you in your comfort zone, move to one of these areas.

But outside of the urban, suburban and Disney metroplexes, most of Florida is inhospitable to humans - cypress swamps, glades, and palmettos and hanging moss chocked forests dominate anything that hasn't been cleared and kept cleared for cattle pasture or citrus/berries. Half of the insect, plant, and animal life is at least equipped to hurt you, if not designed to kill you. Out of this environment emerged the "Old Florida" culture. It is a culture of ranches and cowboys (real cowboys), airboats and swamp buggies, gator and hog hunting, phosphate mines, and hard-scrabble big game fishing - an unpretentious approach to working hard and having fun. This has been the way of life in most of Florida’s land mass for several generations. Everyone should try to play nice, and there are obnoxious jerks in every group of people. But moving to Florida from what might as well be a different country and putting a mini-mansion or condo on the water, and then complaining about the realities of "Old Florida" culture that surround you, would be akin to moving to an Indian Reservation, and then complaining about the Indians.

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