What the !#@% Boarded by Sheriff AND USCG

[anotherT34C]

As I read the OP, the boat operator wasn't intoxicated.

After having been pulled over by traffic cops capriciously for years (drive a sports car at night, you're a cop magnet), I don't buy the argument that "only the criminals need worry". Drunk driving paranoia has turned the highways into a police state, and the "wars" on drugs and now terrorism, wave turned the waterways into a police state.

Once the water cop left the kids, he told the coasties to basically go and hassle them. The job of police is to enforce laws, not to "teach a lesson".

[jwidahonurse]

No..the USCG was following up..for the rest of us to be safe. I hate the thought of drunk boaters on the water when I am on the water. Breaking the law by not having the correct gear is for everyone..and that those who chose not to follow regs get caught well....that's how the law works..and thank God for the USCG.

[anotherT34C]

The water cop had already determined that the operator was not intoxicated. If he were intoxicated, he would doubtless have been arrested.

I don't really want to be that "safe" (to the point of being capriciously hassled by authorities), thank you very much.

[keelbolts]

Drunk boaters should be hammered just like drunk drivers, but, for the most part, it is nobody's right or responsibility to keep me safe. My life. My safety.

Again, this only holds where it's my health & well-being that's at risk.

[Cadence]

John,

Amen

[LtBrett]

Originally Posted by jwidahonurse

Brett, if you are legal..and your boat is in order..and you aren't "hiding" anything..why should you care if you are checked.....they are doing their job..which is what they get paid to do. The ones who ignore and let the drunks, crooks and such get away with murder...are the ones you should get upset at..they are allowing your life to be threatened by some boater who has no concern for others

Well, for one thing, I just finished a $50,000 paint job on my boat. I would rather not have anyone bumping alongside me. Second, you use the classic argument of most law-and-order acolytes. You are not either supporting law enforcement or condoning murder. Nor do boardings automatically lead to a police state where random searches of boat, home, and property are tolerated by those with nothing to hide. But it sure progresses in that direction.

It is very difficult to argue that a boarding by the CG would not, at the very least, be inconvenient. Ok, I know some folks who really like going to the dentist, but they are the exception. But most of us would prefer avoiding the Coasties even if we had nothing to hide. The CG's image has been transformed from one of benevolent guardians to that of traffic cops. You would rather avoid them. And if you ever need them, it is because something bad happened to you.

Brett

[jwidahonurse]

I do support law enforcement. Otherwise I'd be like you and complain that the law is doing their job. I guess that is why God made fenders...so people won't bump against your boat. I'm thinking if you get along with the law dogs...then when you need them you won't be tainted as a problem..and help will be more readily coming.

[Cadence]

Come on.

Drunken crew, expired flare, not enough life jacket and you want to complain?

Maybe I can see the crew if you were sober.

Roger

[tager]

F*** THE POLICE!

[LtBrett]

This thread has degenerated to rudeness. When logic fails, conduct personal attacks!

Salmon has no leg to stand on--he did something wrong. Folks can rationalize his 'harassment' that he had it coming. The incident described in this thread speaks to a larger problem. We have to tolerate boardings and searches without probable cause. If you speak out against it, you are labled a complainer with something to hide or are somehow unsupportive of the folks that put their lives on the line for our protection. I am neither. I have impeccable credentials, having conducted numerous vessel boardings myself working in close coordination with the CG. Now that the CG is being used as a domestic police force, I can see no circumstance where interaction with them at sea would be a net positive.

Brett

[AK_sailor]

Many of us, myself included, will on occaision sip a brewski while on the boat. And it would not be hard, especially at the beginning of the season, to have a flare expired. Life jackets, however, are about as basic and no brainer safety item as can be.

Let's look at the whole picture here. A visibly intoxicated crew AND expired flares AND not enough life jackets for all on board AND an apparent complete ignorance of local and federal boating regs? Somehow this doesn't sound like someone for whom I feel like expending a whole lot of sympathy.

To anotherT34C, I agree that it is unfair that you get stopped more often because of the vehicle you drive. However, it's even more unfair when a drunk runs a red light and T-bones a mother driving her kids to school. Around here, the most dangerous part of a sailing weekend is usually driving from Anchorage to Seward when the salmon are running in the Kenai River. I've heard too many people complain about the cops, then in the same breath, brag about making a "suicide run" (leaving work at 530pm, driving 2 1/2 hours, fishing and drinking until it gets really dark after 1130 or midnight, then driving back to town).

As I said in an earlier post, the reason we are seeing ever more restrictive laws about boating, open containers in cars, etc, is because there are far too many people who are unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. Salmon Hatchery chose to break the rules, he got caught, and was busted. Too F***ing Bad!

[Highlander40]

For the past ten years I have been boarded almost every year at least once. Many times my boat was the only one around and they get bored. My boat is also painted flag blue and they didn't even touch the hull.
When a coastie shows up in a survival suit with a gun on his hip, I say YES SIR!

[Cadence]

I don't even know why we are entertaining this forum.

Never been boarded by the CG or police or wild life.

They are more than welcome, I pay for them to do that. If I were sinking they would be more than welcome.

The original post sounds like a case of how you hold your mouth when stopped on the road or the water.

[Pblais]

Given the name calling and what everyone thinks of the poilice and USCG seems to be very circular. The applicable nature of this thread has pretty much run out of fuel.

Thread is locked.

[Soft Air]

I am not trying to change the subject but I was boarded last week in Culebra, Puerto Rico when entering on my british yacht from the BVI, we took the dingy to go to customs and before we got to shore federal agents and local police boarded the dinghy and treated us as criminals, the took the dinghy and then they boarded the yacht. Once they notice the boat belongs to a BVI corporation who in turn is owned by a US corporation they changed they attitude...lesson learned...don't go to that hurrible area of Puerto Rico