Should Voyagers Pay Rescue Costs?

One of the recent Scuttlebutt’s (Here) carries a survey on whether voyagers who have to be rescued at sea should pay for the cost, often huge, involving ships, helicopters, rescue coordination centers, etc. This has frequently been an issue in the media. Australian tax payers have long been howling at the cost their country must bear to go out into the Southern Ocean and pick up hapless racers off their upside down race boats.

When I see some of the voyages which are planned or embarked upon, I think they are ill advised stunts, doomed to fail, and I think those folks should post a bond or carry insurance to cover the cost of a potential rescue.

It really irks me when I hear about some cruising boat calling for rescue when their main problem is that they just don't like the rough ride. They are the ones with lots of insurance or enough money, so that they don't care or not if they lose the boat; they just want off. Those people, who abandon boats that are still capable of reaching port without outside assistance, give sailors a bad name, and they should pay, plenty.

But, boy, this raises some sticky issues: For one, who enforces this rule? Second, what do you do if a person has failed to post the bond, jail them or decline to rescue? Maybe in that case a financial judgment would a good punishment, because it would probably bankrupt most people. But then, do we really want to squelch the adventerous souls who try the unthinkable, like kite sailing across the Atlantic?

Finally, and this is probably the deal breaker, who decides what voyages would be subject to this requirement?

Well, maybe some voyages seem to be easier to judge as “likely to require rescue” than others. The guys crossing oceans in row boats for example. But that’s just my opinion. I am sure those same adventurers would beg to differ. What about the singlehanded Round-the-World racers? How about the Syndey-Hobart competitors or the Fastnet boats?

How about me? I am a voyager. With my wife Judy I cross oceans in my own boat. Some people would probably say that we are foolish, and should be subject to such a rule, should be forced to pay for any potential rescue, but I don’t want to; I couldn’t afford to cruise in that case.

Actually, some people think we’re all nuts and we should stay at home, even that we even deserve to die at sea if we dare to go out there. I once thought that myself, and with that view, Judy and I didn’t even carry an EPIRB when we first set out. We were going to be self-sufficient, or pay the price. Since then I have had some friends die at sea, some while I listened to them on the radio. That hit us hard. We realized how easily it could be us. We weren’t ready to die, we decided. We bought an EPIRB. So that means we hope to be rescued in the event of a disaster at sea. So, am I prepared to pay the cost for that? No, I guess not.

So, I guess it should apply to everyone else.

Fred Roswold, SV WINGS, Hong Kong