Isn't Donut the one who believes there shouldn't be any laws or rules
against drunk boating?

Scotty

"Scout" wrote in message
...
Enjoy this one,
Scout

A retired couple's dream of sailing round the world has been wrecked by a
calamitous Icelandic fisherman who crashed into their yacht twice in one
year.

The second collision occurred when Eriker Olafsson, still feeling
remorseful, tried to sail alongside to reinforce earlier apologies for the
first mishap.
Jim and Trish Hughes, who had just completed repairs to their 45ft yacht
Dragon Song when Olafsson hove into view the second time, now say they
will
feel safe only when he has left British waters for good.

Olafsson's drunken antics landed him in court facing a charge of criminal
damage. Nigel Hodkinson, defending at Fareham magistrates' court, Hants,
said
that the case was proof that lightning can strike twice in one place.

On the first occasion Olafsson caused £25,000 of damage, forcing Mr and
Mrs
Hughes to cancel their trip of a lifetime. He paid them in cash for the
cost
of the repairs.

A year and a day later, after drinks at a party, Olafsson was sailing down
the Solent when he spotted the Dragon Song lying at its moorings.

Graham Heath, prosecuting, said: "He was overcome with a desire to give a
more formal and heartfelt apology to the yacht owner for the trouble he
caused the previous year. But instead he smashed into the yacht again,
getting caught in its swinging moorings for the second time."

Mr and Mrs Hughes were not aboard their yacht. Witnesses saw Olafsson
"taking slugs from a bottle of wine" as he tried in vain to free his 45ft
yacht from the moorings of the other. He then "steamed off with the luxury
yacht in tow".

Harbour police arrested Olafsson after he had dragged the Dragon Song five
miles from its moorings at Gosport, Hants, to near Portsmouth. Olafsson, a
59-year-old bachelor, admitted causing criminal damage of £18,000.

Mr Heath told the court: "This case is based around an amazing blunder by
Olafsson who managed to wreck the same yacht twice." He said the
Icelander,
a retired fisherman, had been drinking heavily at a party in Chichester,
West Sussex, before setting sail up the Solent, bound for Ireland.

Mr Hodkinson said: "The fact that Olafsson managed to make this mistake of
hitting the same yacht and getting entangled on two separate occasions is
proof that lightning really does strike twice.

"This was a hugely unusual and unlucky mistake. Olafsson has been at sea
all
his life and, as a former Icelandic fisherman, has sailed in probably some
of the worst waters in the world.

"He is distinctly hazy about what happened but remembers wanting to
apologise to the yacht owner for the incident a year before, and the next
thing he knew, bang, the two boats struck again. Olafsson is a gentleman
who
just panicked."

The defendant, who has already paid compensation for the damage caused by
his yacht on June 6 this year, was fined £200 and ordered to pay £118
costs.

Speaking after the case, Mr Hughes, 55, said the collisions had shattered
his life's dream of sailing across the Atlantic for two years in a row.

He and his wife had sold their house and put their savings into their
£150,000 yacht. Mr Hughes, a former builder and developer, said: "What
that
man has done to me is absolutely incredible. I don't want him ever to
apologise to me again. Both times he caused massive damage to the hull and
mast."

He and his wife have been forced to live on a small motorboat while Dragon
Song is repaired. "I can never rest sound or leave her alone again unless
Olafsson has sailed off into the distance, never to return," he said.

"I, for one, will never, ever sail anywhere near Iceland, just on the
off-chance that he will be there."