Criminalization of seafarers; yacht owners and guests

Jail is the called for answer for almost everything today regardless of the profession, unless you wear a white collar, and even some of them are now seeing the inside, although they can usually afford to get more lenient treatment. "Fighting crime" is big business as is the "War on drugs". Why do you think private corporations are now running prisons? Do you know what it costs for a simple street cop to get dressed before his shift? (Badge, patches, uniform, BP vest, guns, radios, cuffs, flex-cuffs, pepper spray, taser, insurance, pension, etc.). And dressing a cop or a soldier is the cheap part. Crime pays, but not for the "criminal". It's big business.
I've been in this business quite a while, and the last many years have been spent praying that I make it to retirement before getting sued or arrested. All I need is for one person to bring a joint on board or say the wrong thing during a boarding and I'm in the jackpot. Sure I might beat a charge or suit, but what will that cost me? IMHO a person has to be a fool to get a license today. It exposes him and his family to too many legal risks.
We all know that big business doesn't give up a cash cow easily. So expect it to get worse, not better in coming years. The time will come when the majority of the population will have a criminal record. It's the easiest way to create a slave class willing to work for whatever they can get. Whoever thought we'd look forward to getting old? But I wouldn't trade places with a 30 year old for anything. Don't want to be in the world he's inheriting.

you guys make me glad i'am old and a pain in the a$$ i hate to think of what my great grand kids will have to go through

travler

The owner of Zopelote has a very humorous story about being boarded and torn apart coming into Ft. Lauderdale back in the early 90's. Anybody who knows him should ask. He handled things very well.

My son was 12 years old. He had worked the whole winter restoring a 13 foot whaler, 10 coats of varnish he painstakingly applied and sanded between every second coat. April on LI sound is the perfect time for a first cruise. So with a dozen worms we left the dock to have that maiden voyage. Oyster bay is a small, residential harbor. We anchored maybe 200 feet from shore facing the shoreline with our rods dangling over the side when we heard " Salt-teen! Prepare to be boarded". We swung around and 50 feet off our seaward side was the bow of a 44 foot CG cutter and a member of the coast guard standing there with a side arm. We didn't now how to prepare to be boarded. So, we just watched as the armed seaman dropped onto Jon's gleaming teak seat with his boots. Twisting to step further into the whaler, the teak was gouged so deeply it had to be completely redone. We were asked if we had any weapons to declare. Looking at one another, we both said no, patting our sweatshirts to be sure. We were then instructed to kick our bait knife out of reach..... I could go on, but wasn't this a little over the top? A gray haired guy with his 12 year old son, holding fishing rods in a tiny harbor - thank goodness we weren't wearing head sweat bands. I think we would have been hand cuffed as pirates! Absolutely true story.
My son and I have great respect for the CG, but sometimes, individual members can test its well earned reputation

Very interesting story. It confirms my opinion that fisherman think about nothing but what's on their lines. In Oyster Bay a 44' CG boat snuck up on you?
You should have mentioned the new varnish as he was boarding, but that said, there are sure a lot of stupid people around in every organization. Can't believe he'd actually board that boat. Normal prcedure would be to just tie off and ask you to show PFDs, etc. without actually stepping onto a small boat like that. Any chance he was new? (Trying to find some reason for his stupidity.)

NYCAP

Every word is true (ok, maybe we didn't check our sweatshirts for weapons). Have you ever been chatting with a mate facing the shore and had a silent bow slide up behind you? I don't know whether he was new, old or just had a stupid captain, or was on some kind of an improvised training exercise. My son was absolutely petrified during that incident! Oh BTW, smiley faces are below your usual, professional input on the forum. No response necessary.

I wanted to be sure you understood that I was kidding with you there. Never had a boat slide up unnoticed, but I've got prosopagnosia and I don't fish. (kidding with you). I've been boarded a few times and have always been able to keep it congenial, but I've heard some amazing stories. There are definitely some schmucks in all professions, and strapping a gun on one sure doesn't make him better or smarter.

That was the point.

This is all a natural consequence of our decision to prohibit drugs. If we did not take these sizable measures then it would be very easy for someone to get a boat and a semirespectable looking crew and hide drugs aboard, even as such they find drugs on boats much like those that were unfairly searched fairly regularly, often enough to make it worth their time.

As for the oyster Bay incident and others like it the only way that they will change is to document the situation and document them well. It seems like everyone here has heard tons of horror stories, what percentage of those do you think become formal complaints? The jerk who scratched the 13 boat boarding it, his name and serial number should be part of that story, it should be something that haunts him and damages his career, it should be something his fellow coasties make fun of him for. If it were then the third party who overhears it would think twice before they climb aboard a boat to look for whatever the hell he might have been looking for on a 13 foot boat with two people fishing from it.

OPCN

The Oyster Bay incident happened 18 years ago. I am embarrassed to say that my son and I were so dumbfounded, I did not even think of getting name, rank and serial number. The hugh bow (from our position near the water) was one thing, but a guy wearing a side arm sliding under the bow rail to board us was stunning. I blame the commander of that vessel for giving such an absurd order. Maybe they were smoking some of the stuff they got off another boat?

I do have great respect for the majority of the CG - we view our incident as some foolish people doing something foolish.

Oh that's totally understandable. Had I been in the boat with you then I'd ... be in the same boat, so to speak. But for the future, and for everyone who reads this, document, document, document!