[PUP] Rights and responsibilities

[John Marshall]

The idea of "pay for rescue" would cause some people to delay asking  
for help when they really needed it. Bad idea.

However, the premise underlying all of this is that people are largely  
prudent, but sometimes the weather or their boat or their health goes  
downhill in unexpected fashion and overwhelms them.

I believe the state, when there is evidence of gross imprudence,  
should be able intervene before a rescue is required.

But this largely applies to advertised and promoted stunts (like the  
13 year old girl) where they have visibility to the event. Clearly,  
some people go to sea in a boat that doesn't belong there without  
advertising the event. Can't help that, but the state can and should  
intervene when we're talking folly.

Of course, that begs the question of where the line is drawn.

Even the casual student of governments will deduce that rules and laws  
and bureaucracy grow in proportion to the number of incidents they are  
designed to protect us from. If its an occasional idiot, then nobody  
is going to create a huge bureaucracy to deal with it. But if this  
became a common event, it would inevitably lead to licensing and  
permits and who knows what else.

Classic example... car seats for children. Long after they were  
available, many parents refused to buy them or use them. I think there  
were even financial incentives at the beginning to help parents buy  
them. Rumors abounded that claimed they were actually injurious (a  
rare case of a kid being trapped in a burning car). But many didn't,  
and kids were getting needlessly massacred on the highways. The  
government finally put in place laws and enforcement to ensure parents  
were protecting their kid

Same story for seat belts for adults.

I am fairly confident that if 99% of people had been prudent and  
ensured they and their kids were properly secured and protected as  
soon as the technology was available, then we wouldn't have laws  
mandating it.

In the end, its our responsibility as citizens and mariners to act  
prudently so that the government won't have to protect us from  
ourselves.

Anyway, my two cents.

John Marshall
On Aug 28, 2009, at 10:29 AM, <2elnav at netbistro.com> wrote:

> The recent case of  the courst stopping a 13 year old girl from   
> embarking on a round the world  sail as a stunt to capture the  
> record of being the youngest  person to sail solo around the world    
> raises some  serious issues for all cruisers.
>
> Does a state have the right to limit its liabilities  for SAR   
> efforts  if the actions of  one or more people place them at risk   
> and requires the intervention of  SAR  assets and  attendant  
> expenditure.
>
> Does the state have  the obligation to save people from their own  
> folly or lack of judgement and skills.
>
> When the media  gets wind of some  disaster at sea  requiring the  
> rescue of boats and their crews  by the nearest  SAR  assets, there  
> is always a  great outpouring of  emotinal  energy  exhorting the  
> utmost effort to rescue these poor people  adrift at sea and in  
> danger of drowning.
>
> There would be a great outcry if the authority  in question said   
> "sorry but we already spent all the money available".
>
> But look at it  from the other side.   Sometimes these  people are  
> not even citizens of the country that is expected to rescue them.
> Suggestions have been made to make  the  people being rescued   
> responsibel for the costs involved.  These suggestions have  
> invariably been denounced by the press and  people generally.
>
> If  people  are to have the freedom  to risk their own lives  should  
> they not also bear the responsibility to pay for their own  action  
> even if this incurs  great expense?
>
> If the state is not allowed to limit its liability  then it follows  
> they should have the right to  limit the possibility of such   
> expenses  being necessary.  In other words  a prudent prevention  
> program.
>
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