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wrote:
Jeff the "Suicidal Sailor" was another sailing buddy of mine who at
firwst was fairly lucid and a very good sailor and as he truly loved
sailing, I gave him permission to use my 28' S2. After awhile he began
to act sorta erratic and told bizarre stories of sailing on "Ragtime"
under poor conditions. At this time, Bob (previous post) was
recovering from a second stroke and was in a longer term recovery place
like a short term nursing home. Jeff, by this time had started acting
very impulsively and talking suicide so I called the suicide hotline
but they were no help. I told Jeff he could not use my boat to kill
himself.

Why would he care if he had your permission or not?

... Jeff and I decided to go visit Bob at the nursing place.
We made small talk with Bob for awhile while Bobs wife stood by. We
started joking about going on a sailing trip. Jeff started acting like
he was serious so Bob held up his arm with a bracelet saying that if he
tried leaving it would set off alarms. Jeff whips out a large knife
and in a flash suddenly cuts off the bracelet from Bobs arm and tries
to lead Bob out. Bob's wife yelling "NO, NO" while I got Jeff to see
reason.

I have known a number of people who were nutty enough to do
stuff like this, but not suicidal maniacs.

Jeff kills himself a week later (gunshot). At his wake where everybody
was discussing his sailing skills, people would talk about how Jeff had
taken them on wild sailing trips in a boat called "Ragtime".
Bobs health goes slowly downhill and he dies a year later. I never
could bring myself to tell him about Jeff's demise.

It seems likely that your friend Jeff had some serious
family problems, it's a shame that he didn't get them sorted
out.

I've had to deal with a heart attack, dehydration,
hypothermia, drowning, and several forms of stupid
attacks... it's surprising how many emergencies arise in the
course of a few years sailing. One of my best sailing
friends died in a collision with a motorboat, but I was not
at the scene.

Regards
Doug King