The worst boating mistake on Canadian water this summer is assuming the other guy knows the rules of engagement.

Given Transport Canada's new tougher licensing procedures, one would think that a crazy jet-skier doing 100 kilometres per hour down a crowded river knows enough to slow down when approaching a canoe.

Ditto in believing the guy unleashing the thundering howl of 300 horsepower will understand the sign warning of a no-wake zone ahead.

But, sadly, the odds are stacked against any licence holder possessing more than a superficial knowledge of safe boating, mostly the self-taught lessons from a lot of trials and too many errors.

That's because the boating licence exam is a sham.

Consider the official Transport Canada test. It was recently boosted to 50 multiple choice questions, but you have 1:30 to answer each one and it's an open-book exam taken over the Internet at your kitchen table.

Anyone with high-speed connection should be able to master it by giving various study guides a quick computer scan and punching in the correct pick.

What's arguably worse than merely copying the answers off the Internet, the test is administered by private operators who may or may not be entirely ethical in charging their $60-and-up fee. At last count, Transport Canada had suspended a dozen licensing companies for various infractions.

Now, truth be told, I flunked the test on my first try. That's what you get for going by memory and not calling in help from the Google Gods.

But the lunacy of the test itself was a contributing factor to my failure (I got 100 per cent on the second try, with a little help from the Internet).

The computer-generated questions are often ridiculously obscure and do not distinguish between various classes or sizes of boats.

Be it a 12-metre yacht to a small motorboat, it's the SAME TEST, which makes it impossible to tailor the questions to the type of craft the boater will be driving.

For example, the basic Seadoo rider doesn't need to know the number, type and location of fire extinguishers on a 12-metre cabin cruiser, yet that's one of the test questions.

The large yacht owner doesn't need to know what sort of navigation lights are required on a rowboat at night, but that's a test question too -- which is doubly ridiculous because rowers don't need a licence and only require a flashlight at night anyway.

Issuing several classes of boater licences, like they do for car and truck drivers, backed by a lot more emphasis on realistic navigational scenarios, would make for a better test of a boater's knowledge.

There are seven million Canadian boaters out there, and all of them posing a potential risk to themselves and each other.

But anyone who believes a pleasure craft operator's licence means they know basic marine safety should think again.

It tends to test a person's computer-assisted cheating skills more than their boating abilities.

As for those who deliver the exam for a very stiff fee given the minor effort involved, it's a licence to print money.