Boating idiots

[dmccarty]

So WHY does my tax dollars need to pay for someone having STUPID FUN? In my area we have knuckle heads that take a mountain hike with no water in 120 temps and then wonder why they need to be air evaced after they pass out. Or the same knuckle heads that go climbing in a winter storm and get stuck on a snowy mountain at 12K ft. Yes these people a knuckle heads also, taking small children on a tiny boat around the world.
You want to play stupid then buy stupid insurance for 250K payable to the rescue people. Another thing, most rescue people are volunteers, who risk their lives, leave their family, go hungry, walk for miles, sleep in the rain etc. ALL so knuckle heads can have some fun. Get the insurance policy and pay these "volunteers" to do what they do.

I understand rescuing the fisherman doing his job and needing the Coast Guard, or the typical auto crash rescue, plane crash, etc. but why should anyone PAY so others can PLAY stupidly in dangerous situation. You wanna play - then pay.

The family in question was not "playing," they were living. They live on their boat full time. There is no evidence at all that they were stupid either. In fact, everything I have read from the father/captain of Rebel Heart has been very intelligent and well thought out. There are still questions about issues on the boat but what has been reported are not problems that would have caused him to pop the EPIRB.

The reason they set off the EPRIB was because their child was sick and not doing well. The father/Captain is/was an EMT and certainly had a level of training and experience better than most to know the condition of his child. If the child had not gotten VERY sick and not responding to medicines, we never would have heard of the Rebel Heart. There are plenty of boats streaming across the Pacific right now and nobody hears about them because they never get into trouble.

When sailing, there are times you MUST leave location A to get to B. The Rebel Heart was heading to the South Pacific and the season window to leave is NOW. They have to leave this time of year or they will have to sit in North American for another year.

The captain of the Rebel Heart is anything but stupid.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

It is problematic to charge people for rescue. In most cases, people could not pay in the first place. The bigger problem is that if someone knows they are going to be billed for a rescue, they will almost certainly wait to call for help longer than they should. That delay may be fatal.

Most people get into trouble in the outdoors because of ignorance. Very few of the people I saw fishing and boating on the lake over the weekend knew the risks they were taking. The air temperature was in the 70s but the water temp has to be in the 40s. If they fall in the water without a PFD, they have a very strong chance of immediately drowning. This happened to a grandfather fishing with his grandson a few years ago. We usually have a bunch of drownings in the spring and early summer and it is certainly due to cold water and warm air temperatures. People will head out on a day hike when it is warm, get lost and get dead because the temperature falls into the 50s and they get rained on.

There is a major river near us and every year or so, a bunch of young people will go out on the river unprepared. It just happened a month or so ago when a group went down the river after a heavy rain. They did not have the right boats for the river conditions much less safety equipment. Thankfully, nobody got hurt. The water level was not too bad but the water temperature was very low and the people in one canoe were wearing shorts and t-shirts. If they had gone into the water, by the time the swift water rescue got to them, they would have died from exposure...

Even if they had to pay for the rescue, that payment would not prevent anyone else from going down the river since it is doubtful they would even KNOW they would have to pay for a rescue. If you cannot tell that the river is too high and fast to put in your flat water canoe, it is not reasonable to think they would know they would be fined if there was a rescue and even if they did know, I doubt that would stop them.

I do not mind paying for rescues. It is a miniscule part of my tax bill and there are far bigger abuses of my tax dollar...

Later,
Dan