Another drunken Yachtsman

Was he confirmed to be drunk?

Was he deliberately causing havoc?

If he was not drunk, and he was drifting down river due to engine failure (maybe someone nicked his oars - or his RIB didnt have any?), would somebody have still asked the rescue services to look for him?

I hope they would.
 
Agree are we even sure he was a yachtsman??
very few facts to back up the story,

And what is this " Yet another drunken yachtsman causing havoc" there have been others? if so when, where?

I agree totally that anyone involved in a serious incident should be tested for alcohol & if necessary prosecuted, but lets get a sense of proportion, if we make all people in charge of boats have a breathalyzer then we would require hundreds of extra police/officials to do the work for little or no result!

poter
 
It's not clear from the report that the fact that he was drunk was the cause of, or even contributed to, his plight.

The report might just conceivably be stressing that he'd had a drink for its own political reasons, possibly? Just a thought.
 
Me too , doesn't sound any worse than someone getting stuck on the putty waiting for the tide , and the flares !! overland is how I read it

During this search Plymouth Lifeboat, a rescue helicopter, and coastguard officers from Plymouth and Yealm conducted a search of the eastern side of Plymouth Sound after red flares were sighted. After an extensive search of the area nothing was found to indicate a distress and it is believed that the flares were fired overland and more than likely with malicious intent.
 
According to locals he had been drinking in the local SC bar all afternoon and was worse for wear, admittedly he could also have been suffering from some other ailment. He was advised by a local (responsible) yachtsman not to attempt to get back to his yacht which was moored in the river and get a water taxi, this person alerted the authorities on CH16.

The fact that the LB and helo had to be diverted from this task to investigate a hoax meant that 2 valuable resources were being taken from a real incident, incidently the guy was carted off to hospital suffering from hypothermia.
 
It would have been useful if you had published the comment above at the same time as posting the link to the MCA news report, and then less assumptions would have been made (eg as per my comments above) about what actually happened.
 
Nowhere in that link is there anything that says a word about him being advised not to do the trip , or that he was in the bar all afternoon , or that he was taken to hospital

If you're going to have a pop at someone with such a broadside about drunken boaters could you at least put all the info in straight away .

The argument against people drinking hasn't been helped by your post in the slightest



I see I am not alone
 
Ok point taken, perhaps I should have mentioned the rest in the first post. It was not my intention to have a pop at responsible boaters, just point out that there are those who tarnish the reputation of others. And also to stimulate a debate on whether there should be legal requirement not to be impaired by alcohol when in charge of a boat or any other waterborne vehicle.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I still don't see the connection between engine failure and being intoxicated.

[/ QUOTE ]Pure speculation of course, but maybe poor judgement put him in a position engine failure couldn't be dealt with safely. Or too pissed to use the oars.

Or it could be completely unrelated. Maybe he didn't need rescuing at all, and the only reason anyone was called out was because he was thought to be incapable.
 
I suspect that many people die on land from being intoxicated - by falling off balconies (personally I know two people who died this way), stepping unexpectedly into the street, from fights induced by alchohol, from alchohol poisoning or alchohol related organ failure.

It would be interesting to compare the statistics for number of deaths caused by alchohol on land and number of alchohol related deaths while on a yacht, and then work out which needs banning first.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top