I used to keep my boat at Stan's marina many years ago, Stan used to be the coast guard auxiliary there and had both the experience and perfect boat for the job until he retired. Seems odd why no one qualified has stepped up and joined the auxiliary to take his place. While I do agree with Alan that burning the police boat was a stupid senseless act, I do not in any way consider the police there to keep me safe! That is the Coast Guards job who have the proper boats, skills, experience and equipment. Some of the police I have met that run these boats have no more experience on the water than the weekend boaters they are stopping and handing out tickets to. Once at this very marina I spoke with them after crashing into the fuel dock as they came in to tie up and found they had no charts aboard whatsoever, they laughingly admitted to having no formal training and not knowing how to read charts even if they had them. When I noted the toy life ring tied to the gunwale was so hopelessly knotted it would take an hour to deploy I just had to shake my head. Not to mention that the shallow draft go-fast they use is hardly the vessel for search & rescue work, particularly in stormy weather which is the cause for the majority of life threatening situations. Call me cynical but I firmly believe the probabilities that I would have to come to their rescue is far greater than the other way around.
