Stereotypes usually have real-world examples

Meet Captain Lenny Klinger of the 12-meter motorboat Sea No Evil. On Saturday July 18th, Captain Klinger took his little boat out on Lake Michigan, during an active Beach Hazards Statement (meaning waves were unusually high at local beaches), with a forecast 50% chance of thunderstorms between 11am and 4pm.

Now, I realize boaters and pilots have different views of the world, so while I wouldn't even head to an airport to take a Cessna up on a day like that, Klinger—who has a prosthetic leg, so presumably has Seen Some Shit—made a different choice. And wouldn't you know, a thunderstorm did occur, bringing with it 43 km/h wind gusts and waves of almost 2 meters¹. I'll let Block Club Chicago explain what happened next:

The saga began July 18, when Klinger set out from Diversey Harbor with several others on the boat. Large waves knocked out the boat’s electricity and cut power to the engines, stranding Klinger and the others less than a mile offshore on Lake Michigan, Klinger said.

Klinger ignited a flare, and a responding U.S. Coast Guard vessel rescued him and the other people on the boat. Responders realized that the conditions were too dangerous to tow the boat, so they cut the anchor to let the vessel adrift. It turned up on North Avenue Beach the next day.

“I hit a big wave, and then the engines died,” Klinger said. “The stupid Coast Guard made me cut my anchor and leave the boat behind. … They said, ‘Wherever the boat goes, it goes.’ So it washed up on [North Avenue Beach].”

On July 19, Klinger found his boat planted in the sand of North Avenue Beach, with serious exterior damage to the sides from banging into the beach’s offshore wooden pylons.

Ah, the "stupid" Coast Guard, who went out in the same storm to save his sorry ass from his dead-in-the-water boat, and ordered him to take action that may have saved the boat.

It gets better:

Boat insurance typically covers most recovery and cleanup efforts — but Klinger’s boat isn’t insured, despite it being the fifth boat he’s gone through in three years, he said. Now, he’s been trying to find ways to dig his boat out and tow it back to Diversey Harbor himself.

Perhaps the biggest difference between aviation and boating is that it's unlikely for a 12-meter boat to kill its occupants when the captain does something incredibly stupid. Planes are a lot less forgiving. Even still, Chicagoans have rallied to help Klinger, with a recovery company even giving him a steep discount to try towing the boat off the beach (they failed).

To fly an airplane solo, a person usually needs 20 hours of flight instruction and 20 hours of ground study. There are written tests, lots of practice, and someone who knows a lot more about flying signing off on it. To rent a 12-meter motorboat, you need a credit card. Maybe it's time for the "stupid" Coast Guard to license boaters? Oh, and even though the FAA says I'm legal to jump in any single-engine land airplane and fly it anywhere in the United States, the insurance companies that underwrite every flyable airplane will not let me take off without getting current in the specific make and model I want to fly. Basically, I need to go back to flight training for a couple hours on the ground and probably 5 hours in the air before any flight instructor will sign off on me renting their aircraft.

Chicago has a stereotype of drunken idiots on motorboats becoming hazardous to themselves and everyone else by making very poor decisions. Chicago's "Play Pen," just off Navy Pier, is aptly named. And yes, people die there about once a month in the summer. Captain Klinger's decisions on July 18th have not helped the reputations of Chicago boaters.