British Lifeboat Call to Sailboat

[Jim_ME]

I just found this video while searching "Westerly", and thought initially that I would post it in one of the twin keel threads, but now think that it merits its own.

It was interesting to see this twin-keel sailboat rolling so much that one of the keels was clearing the water. There are many other questions about the handling of the sailboat...Why isn't the main reefed, genoa rolled in to reduce area? Why isn't the boat hove to, rather than taking the seas on the beam? Can it heave to in these conditions with short keels? Is the uninjured person not experienced or trained to do these things, since the other person didn't anticipate getting injured (who does)? Why so much reliance on the motor? (as has been discussed here). Questions that are easy to ask watching a screen from the comfort of a desk...

But in re-watching the video I was struck by the opening scene of the "lifeboat" (Rescue boat) heading out into the rough conditions at speed, and the sense of purpose that its crew conveyed.

My thoughts were that the lifeboat crew were a very dedicated and professional equivalent of our Coast Guard, and well-paid I hoped, since who else would ever do this, and how could you possibly get them to?

Wrong!

These are volunteers in a volunteer private organization that is supported entirely by donations. (They also have a separate national Coast Guard.)

This is impressive by itself, but it also came to mind that perhaps this is one way that another country deals with the issue of how to serve a community without necessarily expanding the role, size, and extent of intrusion of government. I am thinking here about about the proposed new laws and regulations for the government to control liveaboards in Georgia, for instance.

Personally, whatever my inclinations on land, when it comes to protecting traditional maritime freedoms, I find myself very much on what others might view as the libertarian end of the spectrum. I hope that we as a society can find ways of controlling the few that cause problems without creating a (well intentioned) bureaucracy that tramples on the traditional culture and freedoms of the responsible majority. (I intend for this to be more of a philosophical and cultural statement more than a political one, although inevitably there is some major overlap.)

[Captain Smollett]

Beautiful.

Nice video, and nice commentary, Jim.


I want that job.


You might also find this an interesting read:

Graveyard of the Atlantic: Shipwrecks of the North Carolina Coast by David Stick.

Written in the 1950's, it has a different "style" than most modern books.  This is essentially an historical account of the lifesaving service on the Outer Banks (some mainland stories from around Wilmington/Southport).

I'm sure every lifesaving service in the world has similar stories that are just as amazing.  Would love to read more.  Alex that used to post here was a volunteer in that service in Australia.

Grog for posting that video.

[Oldrig]

Jim,

What an amazing--yes "beautiful"--video. Thanks for posting it.

Like you, I'm wondering if the sailors knew how to heave-to their Westerly. Shouldn't they have rolled in the genny, backwinded it and lashed the tiller to leeward? Or, doesn't a twin-keeled boat heave-to very well?

These are volunteers in a volunteer private organization that is supported entirely by donations. (They also have a separate national Coast Guard.) I hope that we as a society can find ways of controlling the few that cause problems without creating a (well intentioned) bureaucracy that tramples on the traditional culture and freedoms of the responsible majority. (I intend for this to be more of a philosophical and cultural statement more than a political one, although inevitably there is some major overlap.)

This is a very interesting point. I don't want to get into politics (well, I actually love political debates, but this isn't the place for them), but I will point out that the USA seems to have taken a different approach to this.

There used to be volunteer lifeboat companies in the US, but they were subsumed first into the US Lifeboat Service, and later on into the US Coast Guard. There was also a time when the Coast Guard Auxiliary could help with non-emergency rescue and towing operations, helping ease the burden on active-duty Coasties.

But at some point (I don't know when), the USCG ruled that having volunteers do this would interfere with private companies. (SeaTow, TowBoatUS, etc., etc.) This seems, IMHO, to be part of a privatization approach to the public-safety function, as opposed to a voluntarism approach that still exists in the UK.

I'm sure that liability laws also had something to do with this--but most states now have "good Samaritan" laws to protect volunteer rescuers. (When I was a Ski Patroller, more than 20 years ago, we had the nuances of this stuff drilled into our skulls--it's a real issue in this country.)

The few times I've had to use private companies (twice, so far), I was impressed with the professionalism and efficiency of their skippers. I was also impressed with the cost of their services if you don't have the fully paid-up "membership."

Anyway, I'm not sure that we could have volunteer lifeboat companies here in the US, much as we could use them. Would it really be fair to take business away from entrepreneurs who invested in training, purchased boats and purchased franchises?

No answers ... just interesting questions.

--Joe

[Captain Smollett]

Joe,

You raise some interesting points about the nature of volunteer rescue services, but to raise the obvious counter point, volunteer firefighting services DO still exist (in fact are quite prolific).

I was a volunteer firefighter for 7 years, and relate both to what you are saying (about the liability and other stuff) AND to just how profound that UK sea rescue service really is.

Mountain rescue services do still exist, as well.

Question:  If one wanted to organize a private, volunteer sea rescue service, could "they" legally stop you?

[Oldrig]

Question:  If one wanted to organize a private, volunteer sea rescue service, could "they" legally stop you?

Cap'n:

I'm sure I can't answer that one. We've got a volunteer fire department here in my little town (pop. 6,000), as well as an ambulance service that 's affiliated with the local regional high school (to help train paramedics). And there are plenty of active volunteer mountain rescue operations, as you point out. (But in Europe, as I understand it, you either buy climbing insurance or get billed for a rescue after the fact--sort of like our towboat services.)

My totally uneducated guess is that "they" couldn't stop a purely volunteer sea rescue service. I think the restrictions on the Coast Guard Auxiliary (and the USCG itself) have to do with a U.S.-government-sanctioned organization competing with private companies.

I was sailing in some pretty heavy weather last weekend, listening to VHF channel 16, when I heard a call to a local harbormaster. It came from a small stinkpot that was disabled, anchored in rough but shallow waters. The harbormaster asked if the boat owner wanted to contact one of the two commercial towing outfits that operate in Buzzards Bay.

When the boater said he "preferred" to have the harbormaster tow him in, the local official agreed and towed them in. I'm not sure what the protocols are: This was a small boat, it was in local waters and a local official (more like a cop than a Coast Guard) acted in a way that took some business from the commercial towers--one of which is based in this same town. [I'm being vague because you're not supposed to quote from VHF traffic without permission.]

Will the town in question bill the boater, whose boat was registered and home-ported in that community, or was it covered by his excise-tax and mooring/slip sticker fee?

I don't know the answer. Just more questions....

--Joe

[mrb]

Maybe the pay thing is a diffrent mind set than we Americans are used to today.  We was in Ireland a couple years ago and some locals commented on our pro sports and the outlandish pay. They said their sports teams are just that sports for the fun of it or pride in their home no pay needed.  Not sure if that is all sports over there but that was the impression given. 

[Jim_ME]

John, Thanks, and I will keep a watch for the book.

Joe, I didn't know that there had been many volunteer lifeboat companies in the US, and how that evolved (or devolved?) into what we have now. It was interesting to learn abut that history. In the areas that I have done much of my sailing way Down East there is still no commercial tow boats companies that I'm aware of. [So if a boater sends out a distress call, the first responder may be a local fishing or lobster boat (or another pleasure boat), since the nearest Coast Guard Station may be a good distance away.]

MRB, My niece, Megan, had taken up the Irish ceili (or Gaelic ceilidh) dancing, which had the tradition [of] rejecting the commercialized culture that encourages the passive "don't try this at home, we are trained professionals" and [instead] local amateurs are [invited] to participate with a come-as-you-are-with-the-talent-you-got approach, and they have a live party and dance at someone's house, moving the furniture out of the parlor. I admired this approach, and it certainly celebrated and encouraged local community. Beats the heck out of everyone being isolated at home watching the celebrities music videos on YouTube. [This seems similar to the views you got in Ireland about what motivates them to participate in sports.]  

In the same way, I think that these local volunteer lifeboat companies must help build strong communities. These are your neighbor volunteers coming out to save you.

I had been thinking after posting that it was similar to the spirit of our volunteer fire departments. In part it is a way for residents of our towns to contribute and to help keep the cost of services and taxes lower for everyone. So there is a spirit of volunteerism and sharing costs and savings, not being motivated by for-profit commercial business for this critical public service. I suppose that one difference between firefighting and boat towing, is that when someone's home is on fire, you have to put it out, so it doesn't burn the neighborhood or the entire town down. You are forced into the we-are-all-in-this-together model. You don't want people hesitating to call the fire department because they could not afford to pay for for-profit firefighting if it were also based on the for-profit commercial boat towing model. You can allow a boat owner that does not belong to a towing plan to continue working to get back on his own or even refuse help without such shared risk.

[Jim_ME]

Have had a few more thoughts about this subject and found what seemed like a relevant story...

I've never used one of the commercial towing services, so cannot make any comparisons from my own experience. From what I had heard and read, though, they seemed somewhat like the AAA Towing services on land. They would come do some basic things, bring you fuel if you ran out, give you a jump, or tow you to your garage. However if there was someone injured aboard, or the weather was very bad, or your boat was in serious danger, then you needed the Coast Guard.

When I first watched this video, my thought was that this "lifeboat" was more on a rescue mission and they seemed comparable to our Coast Guard. When I looked at the website for their organization and some of the other rescues and their larger rescue vessels, that's when it began to seem like a local all-volunteer sort of Coast Guard. [This struck me as a very impressive commitment for such a vital service.] Then from that to a possible personal philosophical connection to the proposed regulations for live-aboards in Georgia, which I had been thinking about. I probably should have commented on that in the thread that John had posted.

I had mentioned that in the Way-Downeast region that I had done much of my sailing, there is a reliance on local boaters because often they are the only ones nearby. A couple nights ago I saw a brief story on one of the local programs about an author of a new book based on his experiences on Matinicus Island, off the mouth of Penobscot Bay, Maine. He briefly mentioned some lobstermen heading out to rescue the crew of a foundering tugboat in winter.

It sounded interesting so I searched for the story online and found this article which was good, but incomplete. So I had to learn the rest of the story here in this other article, which ended with what I found to be a very powerful statement about the culture and tradition of coming to the aid of those in need.

[Oldrig]

Jim,

I remember reading about that rescue by Matinicus lobstermen--one of those heroes was interviewed in an article about visiting the island that appeared in my former magazine.

The history of volunteer lifesaving goes back to the very beginnings of our country, when a group of Massachusetts businessmen (remember, Maine was part of Massachusetts back then) formed the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The organization still gives out lifesaving medals (and it is not affiliated with the National Humane Society that protects animals), but it's origins predate the U.S. Life Saving Service or the Coast Guard. It was a voluntary group, set up in a day when most commerce was seaborne and shipwrecks were relatively common.

Here's a link to its history:

www.masslifesavingawards.com/history/

The world has changed a lot since then, and coastal waters (except, perhaps, way Down East) are crowded with recreational traffic. It may be that the proliferation of pleasure boating, along with the proliferation of minor incidents and accidents, led the Coast Guard to try to bow out of helping out small boats when life and limb was not involved. (I don't really know.)

I'm not sure that it's a better system than what they seem to have in the UK. The guys who run SeaTow and TowBoatUS franchises work hard, and they're competent and helpful, but they are in a business, and I'm not sure that's the best motivation for this kind of thing.

More than 20 years ago, while I was waiting for a small yard to repair the rudder on my catboat, I spent a whole day on the town dock at Stage Harbor (Chatham), Massachusetts. I was talking with some retired commercial fishermen and several retired Navy guys, all of whom were active in the local chapter of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

They regaled me with stories of how they used to go out and lend a hand to boaters in trouble: towing boats off the sandbars or even keeping a jerrycan of gasoline on board to help out those who ran out of fuel. They also told me that they could no longer do so while patrolling with the USCG Auxiliary. [NOTE: These guys seemed "old" to me then; some of them might have been younger than I am now.]

And I've heard horror stories about folks without marine towing insurance who ended up inadvertently granting salvage rights to tow boat operators.

Stories like these raise the question about whether these matters should be part of the free market or a volunteer effort. Like you, I've given the matter a lot of thought--and I haven't been able to reach any hard and fast conclusions.

--Joe

[Captain Smollett]

Been thinking about this for a few days...

I think on the one hand, that fact that we are even having such a discussion speaks volumes about our culture.

This is the salient point I've been stuck on:

I think that these LOCAL volunteer {insert service} must help build strong communities.

{emphasis mine}

It's hard for me to imagine a world where neighbors don't help neighbors in need.  But, alas, I've seen it, and it must be 'rare' enough that when they DO help, it becomes newsworthy.  Sort of.

I believe, there are a lot of reasons for this ... I call it decay.  No easy answers, but I know I can only hope to do my part if/when the need arises.  I've tried to in the past, but I wonder how many opportunities were missed?

I'm reminded of two quick stories...both that baffle me.

First:

We were once motor boating along the ICW just south of Little River Inlet on the NC/SC border..aboard my brother in law's boat.  This is fairly busy stretch - not isolated by any means.  At any given moment, we probably had at least 3 other boats in sight (underway, fishing off to the side, etc). 

Cruising by, we noticed a fellow on a Jon boat pulling the outboard starter rope over and over...he obviously was having difficulty getting 'er going.  We toodled over to see if he needed assistance, and he took the offer of a tow back to the marina where he worked (tried to do a little fishing on a break).

He'd been there a little while, apparently...and no one else stopped to even SEE if he was okay.  Certainly not a life threatening situation, but it is representative of the tunnel vision and selfishness I have become quite sensitive to.

Second:

I think I've told this one before, and if so, I apologize for borishly repeating myself.  Anyway, I had gotten a ride from some coworkers to the Park n Ride I used (to take the bus to work).  As we entered the parking lot, there was a girl in a car with smoke coming from under her hood.

Not steam like overheating, but smoke.  Her car was on fire.

My "friends" dropped me off...I said, "hey, the girl's car is on fire."  They replied, "oh, ok."

And drove away.

There were at least five people sitting at the bus stop watching all this, and NOT ONE of them lifted a single finger to help her (put the fire out, help her get away, call the FD, etc).  They just watched.

After helping her get it under control and convincing her that it was all really ok, that her car was not going to burn up and what she needed to tell whoever she had fix it, I became so angry I could hardly stand it.

Bad enough people I did not know acting like that...but for those I did know to just drive away without even a "what should we do" told me more about their character than I had learned from knowing some of them 4 or 5 years in a work setting.

I doubt I will ever understand the mentality of "inaction."  When something needs to be done...do it.  Worry about the potential lawsuits and the other fabricated horse snot later. 

And finally, again, I'm reminded of Heinlein's "Rational Anarchy" - not as a form of government (which it is not), but as a personal philosophy.  Each man, no matter what laws exist or to which rules of society he subscribes, is responsible for his own actions.

Or, inactions, as the case may be.

I hope there will always remain on the sea real 'men' (male or female, if I may be granted some poetic license) who act when it's time to act, that in at least one of those boats we see every weekend there is a waterman willing to see beyond his own 'recreation' or 'economy.'

Back to Jim's point - it centers on community.

[mrb]

My parents taught me you never pass a boat in trouble even if it means you were going to loose a day of income.  They were commercial fishermen and that was the law of the sea, same thing in the roads and trails in the back country of the West 60 years ago.  I know times change but some things do not need to change. 

[Oldrig]

My parents taught me you never pass a boat in trouble even if it means you were going to loose a day of income ... that was the law of the sea. 

Amen! Thanks for that comment.

What your parents told you still is the law of the sea, as far as I can tell, and every mariner has a moral obligation to help another boat in trouble. We can only hope that all the weekend boat jockeys out there understand that they operate under the same sense of mutual obligation (call it "community?") that binds together people who wrest their livings from the sea.

It seems to me that Jim's posting at the top of this thread also refers to organized groups of volunteers, presumably with the training, equipment and organization to monitor distress calls and go out of their way to respond--even if at risk to themselves.

Smollett's reference to volunteer fire departments probably comes closest to this. I'm not sure that such groups exist in our coastal waters, although they once did.

--Joe

[Bill NH]

What your parents told you still is the law of the sea, as far as I can tell, and every mariner has a moral obligation to help another boat in trouble.

The obligation to assist another vessel in distress is a legal as well as moral one, and applies to both ships and yachts...

Both the 1958 Geneva Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 LOS Convention provide that every state shall require the master of a vessel flying its flag, insofar as can be done without serious danger to the ship, crew, or passengers, to render assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost and to proceed with all possible speed to the rescue of persons in distress if informed of their need for assistance, insofar as it can reasonably be expected.

Interesting that a new law in Canada in 2007 raised the penalty for violating this law from $500 to $1,000,000.  They are serious about one's obligations.  Not sure what the comparable US sanction is...

This became an issue we came across when I was sailing as master of a ship during the Haitian refugee crisis a while back, when they would wait until they were in sight of a ship and then deliberately scuttle their derelict craft, knowing the passing ships were obligated to come to their assistance and pick them up.  Our company policy was that we would deploy our liferafts for them and stand by until the Coast Guard arrived, but we were not to take refugees aboard if at all avoidable because of legal implications...

[Seafarer]

In the Tampa Bay area of FL, or at least the portion in the vicinity of Maximo Point, there is a free tow/rescue service operated by volunteers from Eckard College. They have good equipment and behave in a professional and courteous manner. They saved my arse when the outboard on my IP overheated and stranded me in a precarious place to be anchored.