Treasure Cay. Boat adrift.

[Group9]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Guys, I really think we should give Group 9 space to feel as he does.

I have had a good deed turn into a visit to the police station.

In my case, I would still take the risk, because I was totally convinced what I had done was the right thing. But, as a result of doing this good deed (offering shelter for the night to a friend of my daughter), I was vilified in my own home (by the girl's drunk mother), and had eventually to call the police to get her to leave. She wanted to charge me with kidnapping. Ultimately no charges were filed.

However, I don't think we should be down on Group 9, because his good impulse wound up leaving a lasting bad taste. Any time we do anything, there is some risk of it going pear shaped. We have a choice whether or not to accept the risks. He gets to choose. Good things can happen also when we don't help. People learn more about taking responsibility for their actions, for instance--or at least they have the opportunity....

Ann

Thank you for that. And, in a life or death situation, I still wouldn't just stand by.

But, my risk/beneift matrix for other people's property, I fear, has been permanently changed! I just call the harbormaster, now and give him an FYI when I see something.

[Shrew]

Many years ago, we had a boat in a marina that was somewhat exposed. We would occasionally get swell, particularly from offshore storms. We would often have to chase broken lines and boats banging against the fixed docks.

One day a friend jumped on an unoccupied boat to adjust some lines to keep the boat from hitting the dock. What he didn't notice was that he also adjusted how that boat was positioned in the slip. As the tied rose and we got some storm surge making for a higher than normal tied, there was enough slack to allow the boat to move further back than normal.

For some reason, the owner raised in outdrives up (made no sense since these were outDRIVES, not outboards and raising them didn't raise them out of the water. We had 12 foot depths so there was not a draft issue). These combination of conditions caused his outdrives to start hitting the piling in the back of the slip in the middle of the night, until one of the drives sheared off at the transom assembly, tore the main bellows and sunk the boat.

So, be careful what lines you touch on someones boat. Sometimes good intentions lead to detrimental outcomes. I doubt the vessel owner was thankful someone was looking out for his boat in his absence.

[Shrew]

Continued.....

To make matters worse. The owner of the sunken boat was a new kid with a young wife and a baby. This was his first boat. He assumed that it was covered under his home owners insurance. It was not. The boat was totalled and he was left empty handed.

[Tetepare]

Originally Posted by AKA-None

There was a thread not long back where one person said never touch my boat for any reason or I’ll haul you to court. So some people really don’t care what their boat does.

I’ll bet if somebody saved his boat and he prosecuted his insurance fraud investigators would be very interested in his reasoning.

[GrowleyMonster]

If the boat is unoccupied, it is a judgement call. There are a lot of great people who own boats, and a lot of ass-hats, too. There are guys who will press charges for tresspass if you board their sinking/drifting/burning/grounding boat. There are guys who will sue you into the poorhouse over some damage caused by the good sam not knowing something about the vessel's equipment or configuration. If you have to actually go aboard, you assume a certain risk. If you have to go below, particularly if you have to cut a lock to do so, more risk. Stranger's boat, someone you never even met? More risk. The boat may be well and fully insured against loss or might carry no insurance at all. It might be a danger to other boats or it might not. There might be other boaters willing to help, or understanding local authorities who tell you they won't interfere if you save the boat, or marina management that assents to your intention to save the boat, or not. Yeah, you save the boat, you did the right thing. But the high moral path can be treacherous as much as it is rewarding. Once you take another vessel in tow, you assume a lot of responsibility for it, so even not going aboard can be perilous. Honestly, and yeah I know there will be howls of righteous outrage at this, if I don't know the owner and can't contact him, and the boat is not a danger to MINE, I am not touching it. Plain and simple. Too risky. You can thank all the ungrateful vindictive owners who have went after their benefactors rather than thank them.

[merrydolphin]

I have saved several boats over the years. Probably one of the most notable was about a 45 foot french boat anchored toward the outside of the pack in Admiralty bay, Bequia. My wife saw her heading out to sea rapidly. We quickly jumped in our dingy ( a pretty fast one). And headed out full throttle. Jumped aboard. No one on board, boat locked, ran to bow and started rapidly letting out chain before to was too deep. Finally got the anchor to hold. She was close to going over the horizon. Next land a thousand miles down wind in the trades.

[Time2Tri]

As a HarborMaster it’s been a moral issue I struggle with. Legally of course I cannot jump on someone’s boat but morally I feel I have a duty to be a prudent mariner.....under the cover of darkness I am often invisible....daylight not so much.

[JordanH]

Originally Posted by Northbound44

CELEBRIAN
ROBERT STEPHEN MCGUFFIN
Address 26 - 76582 JOWETT'S GROVE RD
SS1
CityBAYFIELD
CountryCANADA
Postal CodeN0M 1G0

This address is a marina in Bayfield. I have a friend with a boat in slip #16, so presumably that's only 10 away from the #26 listed above?
I've asked him to ask around to see if the owner is back in Canada.

My thinking is that they may have had to leave the boat and fly home due to COVID.
If they are anything like the other folks that I know in Bayfield, they will be tremendously grateful if you saved their boat from breaking away.

[captainwd40]

Thank you for all the good deed stories ..... i love them because i am a true believer that what goes around comes around!!!

[Shaneesprit]

In the port where I berth there have been a fair few boats come adrift, someone normally boards them, even heard of them being dragged off the rocks.
In a different area, We lost a boat when I was a child, didn’t find it for a couple of weeks, assuming it had gone out to sea. Later it was found solidly moored some distance up river - being a 26ft Trimaran, no harm done, dad was only disappointed that whoever rescued the boat didn’t leave a name.

[Gerrit Coetzee]

Originally Posted by Shrew

I once watched a boat dragging anchor (unoccupied) into a three boat raft also anchored (unoccupied). I trespassed onto the dragging boat, put out fenders the length of the boat, and rafted the dragging boat onto the rafted boats.

Let all parties come to me and complain.

You have a choice, let them continue to both be in peril and potentially be a hazzard to those around them, or trespass and save the property of the owner and those around them. I would think the travesty would be to stand by and watch with the position of "I don't want to get involved".

Trespass it is not! Trespassing is entering a property or a boat with legal course.
Emergency situations and emerging emergency situations gives any person full legal capacity to enter such vessel. Starting, moving, salvaging, re-anchoringit etc. all is legal (and expected!).
Having police, coast guard or other people as witness is just helpful.

I left my Cat in PR forva quick trip to renew my visa. Was caught in and still in lockdown in another continent.

What I fortunately did, is that I secured my mobile nr on the inside of the saloon glass door, showing the number clearly.

Our boat unfortunately did severed from the mooring and end up at a marina, one of several there. I was contacted by persons in January 2020 and the vessel is now docked.

The boat has last week been moved on my behalf to a better , more secure marina, all with the help of people I have never met.

Thank you for people who helped me. In the 6 months prior to this , I went on to two boats and with my generator and pump , spend hours pumping water out. Rescuing them from eminent sinking within hours. One said thank you. The other owner did not bother to thank me, afraid that I may charge him something!?!?

Thank you for the people who cared enough to help me.

[johnn33]

Is this recalled?
"Whilst forgetting that Golden Law do as you would be done by, they make self the center of their actions"
Matthew Chapter 7 verse 12 and many much older sources world wide.
John

[BBill]

I called an owner once who's sailboat broke from a mooring and went on the beach. A storm was happening but figured a couple of us at the marina could save it. The owner said leave it alone and that's what he had insurance for. It broke up that night. I have several neighbors who leave boats hanging in their boat lifts during hurricanes...expensive go fast boats that cost $500k+. They have the same mentality about insurance.

Doing good deed bit me once so I understand why some might not want to do a "good deed". For me it was a dog running loose at a major hi-way intersection. I thought he was going to get injured and pulled over, called him to my car and contacted the phone number on his tag. The owner lived 10 miles away and said he would come get the dog. Instead, a very unfriendly detective arrived and tried to make me out as a thief. He tried every way possible to make me admit I stole the dog. He took the dog and I almost went to jail. That was in 1980 and to this day I'm still cautious about helping.

[RaymondR]

A couple of experiences with rescuing other peoples boats.

One was a very nice 40' centre cockpit yacht I noticed dragging into a fleet of moored vessels and boarded it and tied it off to a mooring it was dragging past. The next day a very nice lady turned up in a dingy and thanked me profusely. Turned out she had had to rush her husband to a hospital about 100 miles away to have an emergency operation. I helped her move the boat into a marina and months and sea miles later ran into her again and was invited for dinner. The husband turned out to be a real curmudgeon and I thought he was going to evict me before I had finished my coffee and port.

The second was a dingy drifting away out to sea in the middle of the night which I spotted during an anchor check. I was nervous about retrieving it because it required a chase into the open sea in my dingy but did so anyway. Another curmudgeon turned up the next morning, not a word of thanks and I gained the suspicion that he suspected I was trying to steal it.

Will I do it again.....yes. I have decided that I will not allow the recalcitrant behavior of these curmudgeonly mongrels dictate my behavior and deprive me of the good feeling one deservedly gets from carrying out a good Samaritan act. if I see another boat about to go to waste or be damaged I will make an attempt to remedy the situation and to hell with the ungrateful buggers.

[LittleWing77]

"To hell with the ungrateful buggers" !



LittleWing77