Another Stupid Rescue

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by David M

It's not just the money. It is the lives put at risk as well. SAR craft do go down periodically.

In that case the Govt should either ban them from going out or have someone "in authority" (and independent) complete a full risk assessment for each call, something lasting about 3 days should cover it .

Actually a good argument for a SAR being limited to CG / RNLI etc simply getting on the radio and saying to folk........."suck it up" .....obviously there be a danger from using something with electricity to do that, so appropriate safety gear must be worn including a helmet - perhaps made of cotton wool. or tinfoil.

Remember it's people's lives we are talking, people who would put there own ars#s on the line (if the Govt would let them) to rescue others - can't ever have enough safety.......those who advocate anything less probably also advocate bayonetting babies .

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by David M

Taxpayers subsidizing the cost of a rescue only encourages more. It's not hate, it's being financially responsible for ones activities....like purchasing insurance.

Perhaps there needs to be rescue insurance for foolish ventures like this?

Well i for one have no problems with my tax dollars paying for this, especially when looking at the billions (multiples) of tax dollars that have been flushed on pie in the sky schemes over my life time. I can think of one in particular that has had $80m a year spent on it for the last 12 years and never seen a return, and never will.....and benefits no one......but if someone complains about this particular waste of the tax dollar, well that person is branded.....

So, if Govco spends a few mill a year plucking a few individuals to safety, i am happy with that......

[psneeld]

There's a lot of people concerned with the risk to SAR crews out there...any of you ACTUALLY do SAR for a living?...I did...20+ years USCG helo pilot....including Drug War Carribean, North Atlantic, Arctic, Antarctic, Alaska....

I just want to be able to value the "risk to rescuer lives" concerns with REAL experience doing it...not just a bunch of "Dangerous Catch..or Coast Guard Alaska" junkies with overblown concerns...

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by psneeld

There's a lot of people concerned with the risk to SAR crews out there...any of you ACTUALLY do SAR for a living?...I did...20+ years USCG helo pilot....including Drug War Carribean, North Atlantic, Arctic, Antarctic, Alaska....

I just want to be able to value the "risk to rescuer lives" concerns with REAL experience doing it...not just a bunch of "Dangerous Catch..or Coast Guard Alaska" junkies with overblown concerns...

Sounds like you could share some great stories. My post about "if prepared, do it before age sets in" wasn't meant to minimize the dangers to SAR if the chit hits the fan, so I hope you didn't take it that way. I'm sure there are more people than you can count on both hands that owe their life to you and your 20 years with SAR, I tip my hat to you.

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Sounds like you could share some great stories. My post about "if prepared, do it before age sets in" wasn't meant to minimize the dangers to SAR if the chit hits the fan, so I hope you didn't take it that way. I'm sure there are more people than you can count on both hands that owe their life to you and your 20 years with SAR, I tip my hat to you.

wasn't you...
sorry if I seemed like I directed it...nope...the ones I directed it to are the type that won't acknowledge there's a bigger picture than what they see....

[abh]

I wonder how many people sit at home watching tv, judging the fools on their yachts who get caught in storm, or with mechanical failures while trying to cross oceans when they can fly instead. I guess the ratio isn't anything different from here.

People are always willing to put a price to others freedom.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

I think the reaction would have been different if they had first posted on CF with something like "Which is the BEST Pedallo for going Transat?".

and possibly have worn Bikinis

and been female .


(BTW, Pedallos have been covered before by CF........in a Piracy thread - a short one of only 2 pages and which never got locked........).

What is the definition of piracy?

You remember stuff from that far back!!

edit

I read more and now understand you were pedallo-ing back then too. And armed.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by abh

I wonder how many people sit at home watching tv, judging the fools on their yachts who get caught in storm, or with mechanical failures while trying to cross oceans when they can fly instead. I guess the ratio isn't anything different from here.

People are always willing to put a price to others freedom.

+1

Taxes are contributed ( in general) for the common good. Once the service is funded it should be there to be used. I don't believe this was a reckless pursuit. We have some dodgy waters around here, this sort of thing could happen to a judge, as they say.

If you start " pricing" everything, where's does it stop. Shouldn't commercial fishermen pay therefore , or if they end up in winter storms, maybe they shouldn't be rescued.

Sorry a rescue service must not have a moral or financial quandary. It's money well spent, otherwise we are " costing" human life. How much money did it take to rescue the chilean miners, what are the " rescue" costs of recovering already dead bodies from the Concordia. These are things a civilised society simply "does" not "costs"

Dave

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by psneeld

There's a lot of people concerned with the risk to SAR crews out there...any of you ACTUALLY do SAR for a living?...I did...20+ years USCG helo pilot....including Drug War Carribean, North Atlantic, Arctic, Antarctic, Alaska....

I just want to be able to value the "risk to rescuer lives" concerns with REAL experience doing it...not just a bunch of "Dangerous Catch..or Coast Guard Alaska" junkies with overblown concerns...

When I did SAR in the sierras, in the winter, at 8000 feet, usually in crap weather and downright storms, our FIRST goal was always to make sure we didn't ADD to the number of rescues needed on any given call...

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by sarafina

When I did SAR in the sierras, in the winter, at 8000 feet, usually in crap weather and downright storms, our FIRST goal was always to make sure we didn't ADD to the number of rescues needed on any given call...

USCG Aviation changed it's motto back 20-30 years ago from "You have to go out but don't have to come back" to "You have to go out AND have to come back"...because too many crews were being lost on missions where the victims survived but the rescuers didn't.

....so I know it goes without saying for most rescue teams...no sense in losing anyone... especially for morons.

BUT...I live in the real world where good, brave souls die all the time...it's NOT the cost of doing business....but it happens and it HAS to be thought about and accepted or as a rescuer...you would eventually become unglued.