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What did these sailors do wrong?
Larry wrote: IN THEIR 70'S?! COME ON! How stupid is that, offshore 200 miles with NO YOUNG, STRONG BACKS ABOARD?!! As long as rich stupids like these are buying boats, I still say LICENSING should be mandatory. You want to sail...fine. You take the course, TAKE THE PHYSICAL TO SEE IF YOU REALLY BELONG OUT THERE (no matter what YOU think), then, if you pass all the REQUIREMENTS....then, we issue you a LICENSE, we can revoke when you are too old, to PREVENT YOU from endangering the lives of young rescue swimmers, helo crews and boat crews just because you are too stupid and pig headed to see you are too old to go "out there" without enough MUSCLE and ENDURANCE for that worst case scenario you should be REQUIRED to be prepared for. NOONE IN THEIR 70'S NEED APPLY! They should be PASSENGERS of ABLE SEAMEN! Larry Hi Larry, I know this is kind of a late reply, but I had to let myself cool down for a few days to think about what I really wanted to say here. When I was 34 I was playing competitive racquetball at the YMCA twice a week with a bunch of guys I worked with. To give you an idea of the level of play, our group included the 1st _and_ 2nd place winners of the Austin TX open racquetball tournament, and a couple of other players who placed in the top ten. On any given day, there were five or six of us who could give the top two a run for their money. There was one fellow who was 70 years old that year who use to come and play with us regularly, and he was quite competitive. He beat me quite a few times, and he also would beat the top two players sometimes. My point is that age is a poor indicator of strength or fitness. I've seen plenty of 18 year olds that would have had a heart attack if they'd try to keep up with this guy, and he would have beat them at arm wrestling also. BTW, although that big Amel 54' may take a lot of muscle to handle the sheets, there are plenty of boats that do not. Hell, there are even boats with (gasp) power winches, and power capstans. Regarding the cost of rescues, and the risk to rescue crews: Those resources are fixed cost, and we taxpayers pay for them whether they are used or not. If there are no real rescues, the crews have to fly practice ones to stay proficient. I have an aquaintance who is a USCG rescue swimmer, and they _love_ to go out on real rescues. It breaks up the boredom, and makes them feel like they are doing something worthwhile. What they do looks dangerous, but they are trained and equipped for it. The USCG doesn't commit to a rescue if they believe that the conditions are dangerous for their crews and equipment. Of course, what looks dangerous to us is routine for them. With your avowed distrust of the US government, why would you want to give them more power to run our lives than they've already got? I say government should stay out of peoples lives unless there is a compelling reason not to. I'm really opposed to the idea that government should become our mommies and save us from ourselves. rant mode off Sorry... I feel much better now ;-) Don W. |
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