On Sep 5, 8:48?am, wrote:
On Sep 5, 11:27 am, Gene Kearns
wrote:





On Tue, 4 Sep 2007 12:27:23 -0400, D-unit penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

After getting drenched in a heavy downpour last week and on my way
home, I notice a fellow off to the side of the ICW *walking* his boat
up the waterway. He waves and appears to be in distress so I turn
around to see what's up.

Turns out,

His battery is dead. I hand over my battery booster which doesn't help
much. (Im wondering if I shouldn't have bought a larger one) He then
asks me to tow him to the wildlife ramp. (approx. 3-4 miles)
to which I reluctantly replied ok. He said a couple other guys had stopped
but refused to give him a tow. I have never had to tow anyone but was
willing to help the guy out.

I did irk me that he had no back up of any kind. i.e. extra battery, paddle.
battery booster.

When we got to the ramp, he offered no *thank you* but a "what do I owe
you"?
A thank you would have sufficed, I guess that's what he meant.

Afterwards, I starting thinking about what my obligations are in similar
situations.

I think Im only legally obligated to lend assistance only if it is a dire
situation or
someone is hurt. Maybe someone could clear this up.

A few thoughts:

1) You lend assistance to the crew and passengers, not the vessel....
so, just waiting at the scene until "assistance" comes is a legal
option.

2) Those advising against any further help may actually be putting
caution and common sense ahead of being a good Samaritan. In a
litigious society, that may not be an all bad idea. (What would the
outcome have been had you been accused of damaging the towed boat in
some way?)

3) It isn't really legal to accept any sort of compensation for this
sort of tow unless you have a Captain's License with a Commercial Tow
Assist endorsement.

Personally, I, too, would have given him a careful tow to Wildlife and
accepted no pay.... but recognize that there could be some liability
incurred, especially if the towee is the sort of person disinclined
to offer appreciation for the voluntary assist.

YMMV.

--

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepagehttp://pamandgene.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguidehttp://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats
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We found a guy in a big boat sitting on it's side in low tide behind
Seldon Island in Deep River CT, on the CT river. Of course, no one
told him the tide was going out so he was stuck until morning. My
Sears Jon, was not going to get him out, so we gave him the food and
drinks from the cooler to keep him for the night. High tide was going
to be about 6 am iirc.. His "buddies" had hiked out and left him
there for the night, yuppies, geeze... It was the 80's then, my jeep
bumper sticker read "die yuppie scum" But he was a boater after all.- Hide quoted text -

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My favorite rescue:

We were westbound across Puget Sound one summer afternoon.
Somewhere near the middle of the stretch between Shilshole and
Bainbridge Island, or at least two miles from land in any direction,
we came across a guy in a very weird looking vessel.

Upon closer inspection, it proved to be a plastic sandbox shaped like
a boat. It was 6-7 feet long, was floating with no more than a couple
of inches of freeboard, and a "hippie" looking individual was paddling
it with a plastic oar. No life jacket or anything else, of course. I
was concerned for the guy, as there was a light chop building and it
wasn't hard to visualize the sandbox filling up with water. I slowed
to a crawl to avoid swamping him with my wake and came to a stop about
15 feet or so from him.

"Are you OK?" I aksed.

"Fine! Why would you ask?"

"We don't see a lot of people out here in sandboxes."

"It floats, doesn't it?" he retorted indignantly.

"Yes, it does that. At least for now. Where are you trying to go?
Maybe we could give you a lift?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Thanks."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely."

We started off, and I was wondering whether or not to report this
idiot to the Coast Guard. He was obviously endangering himself. We
were still nearby when the wooden shaft jammed into the plastic blade
of his paddle broke, and he was reduced to grabbing the plastic blade
with both hands and "scooping" his way along.

"Sure you don't want some help?" I asked again.

"Well, maybe, since the paddle broke. I'm trying to go over to
Charlie's at Shilshole for a beer."

Despite second thoughts about the advisability of taking this apparent
nut on board with us, we hooked a line to the sandbox and set the
paddler on the aft deck. We turned around and headed back for
Shilshole, even though that was 180-degrees from where we intended to
go.

"Do you often go paddling around in that sandbox?" I asked.

"No, not at all. But I saw this Viking movie on TV this afternoon, got
to thinking about how good a cold beer would taste, and decided I'd go
by boat. I don't really have a boat, but I thought that sandbox would
probably do and it did get me halfway across the sound. I would have
made it all the way if the paddle hadn't snapped."

We let him out at the guest dock, where he tied up his sandbox and
headed up to the bar. I implored him to call a buddy to drive over and
pick him up when he was ready to go home again and not try to paddle
back across the sound when it was probably going to be dark. (On top
of all of his other challenges). Don't know if he did or not. I might
be my brother's keeper, but I'll be darned if I'm his babysitter. He
was safe ashore when we left him, and I thought that was sufficient.