Author: Capt Patrick

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Department Of Common Sense?

State threatens suit against boat hobbyists

Posted: Feb 08, 2012 6:27 PM EST  Posted by Nancy Amons

MURFREESBORO, TN (WSMV) -The Tennessee Department of Revenue is threatening court action against a Murfreesboro man who built a small wooden boat in his garage with his 7-year-old son. 

The state says that makes him a boat dealer and subject to paying extra taxes.

The boat is 14 feet long and made of wood. The family ordered the plans over the Internet because 7-year-old Carter loves to fish with his dad.

But when the Kings registered their boat and paid the boat registration fees, the nightmare started.

Letters from the Tennessee Department of Revenue say that because the Kings are boat dealers and manufacturers, they have to pay $539 dollars in taxes on the boat.

Johnathan King thought there was a mistake, so he called the auditor assigned to his case.

“I explained to them that this is just a wooden craft built in the garage, and they indicated that they knew that that was what this was,” King says.

Revenue didn't back down from insisting they were dealers, and warned the family the state could get injunctions or even pursue misdemeanor charges if they didn't pay the taxes.  

“If we don't, they could file liens and levies against the craft,” King says.

“To say it politely, I think it's quite silly,” he says.

How could something you build in your own garage for your own use make you a dealer?

We asked the Department of Revenue for an interview. They said  they couldn't discuss the cases of individual taxpayers, and said that no one was available to speak about the issue, even in general terms.

Johnathan King says there's no way he's a dealer; this boat is intended to be a family heirloom that will be passed to his son's children. 

“It'll never be for sale,” he says. “He would be very upset, yes.”

Our view from the helm: We all know how this story will end. The  Tennessee Department of Revenue will back down from their ridiculous position and the King family will not face any legal action from the state.

   What we always wonder about with stories like this is what government nimrod thought that they would actually get away with trying to enforce a law that is clearly intended for situations other than a family building their own boat from a mail order kit and using it for their own personal enjoyment? 

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Sticker Shocked!

Senator seeks sticker system for boat inspections

Posted on 07 February 2012

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., recently asked the Coast Guard to meet with marine trade groups, boating safety advocates and local law enforcement officials to discuss the implementation of an official inspection sticker system that would better coordinate boater patrols on the Hudson River so boaters are not repeatedly stopped.

Creating a sticker system that all levels of law enforcement recognize has the support of the boating community, and several Hudson Valley law enforcement agencies have expressed a willingness to participate, Schumer said.

He noted that not only will the use of a widely recognized inspection sticker minimize hassle for boaters, but it also would free up law enforcement officials and allow their positive influence to be spread more widely throughout the community.

“With spring boating season fast approaching, it is time to jump-start an official boat inspection sticker program, which will help prevent repeated boat stoppages on the Hudson River, which are as annoying as they are inefficient,” Schumer said in a statement. ”I am urging the Coast Guard to take the lead on this important initiative by coordinating a meeting with state and local authorities, as well as boater trade and advocacy groups, so that this coordinated inspection program can get off the ground.”

Rather than screen one boat six times, we need to develop a program to screen six boats once, he added.

Schumer is urging the Coast Guard to meet with stakeholders this month.

Last summer, he sent a letter to Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Robert Papp after a series of media reports documented concerns about a lack of coordination among federal agencies that resulted in recreational boaters being stopped multiple times by different agencies on the same day.

Our view from the helm: To be blunt the placement of an inspection sticker on a vessel should not take the place of law enforcement. To us this would be no different than putting a Police Benevolant Association sticker on your car bumper and expect that it will give you immunity from being pulled over by the police. Part of living in a free society is that we have rules and regulations and in a post 9/11 world this is just something that we'll have to put up with.

   Instead of a sticker system it would seem to us that communication among the different law enforcement agencies patrolling the waterways would be a more logical place to start. If a vessel is pulled over and inspected a description of the vessel including the registration numbers could be broadcast to all patrolling agencies and barring that vessel or the people on it doing something hazardous, it could then be left alone.

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There Ought To Be A Law

Panel votes to make boat hit-and-run a felony

By Lee Davidson The Salt Lake Tribune  Feb 03 2012 03:53PM

After witnesses said boaters at Pineview Reservoir left a swimmer to bleed to death after they struck her last summer, lawmakers advanced a bill Friday to make leaving the scene of a boating accident clearly illegal.

The House Transportation Committee voted unanimously Friday to pass HB92 and send it to the full House. It requires people who have “reason to believe” they have been in a boating accident to remain at the scene. It makes it a felony to flee the scene when someone is killed, and a misdemeanor in other cases.

Its sponsor, Rep. Richard Greenwood, R-Roy, said it comes in response to an Aug. 21 incident where Esther Fujimoto, 49, a University of Utah researcher, died after being struck by a boat on Pineview Reservoir.

A witness told deputies that men in the boat yelled at the woman to see if she was all right — but then fled without offering aid. Her screams were heard by another passer-by, who rowed to her. As he called 911, he was unable to pull her into the boat, but held her head above the water.

Rescuers arrived and performed CPR, but Fujimoto — who suffered lacerations to her torso from the motorboat’s propeller — died before she reached shore.

Our view from the helm: It is truly sad that our government needs to pass legislation that makes “boat hit-and-run” a felony because of man's inhumanity to man, chilling indifference, or just outright selfishness.

 In short things like what happened to Esther Fujimoto should never happen to anyone, anywhere. Get it together people!

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Thar Be Whales On My Toilet Paper!

Absolutely potty: £640 for a Moby Dick novel

(but it's typed out on four and a half toilet rolls!)

By Jill Reilly

Some people will go to any lengths to win a bet – including one man who spent hours typing out an 822 page novel onto a set of toilet rolls.

But even more puzzling is now that he has finished copying across the classic novel Moby Dick, he is trying to sell the four and a half rolls on eBay for £640.

The American was challenged by a friend to write a book on a loo roll after joking that toilet tissue should come with instructions.

Weird wager: The American was challenged by a friend to write a book on a loo roll after joking that toilet tissue should come with instructionsWeird wager: The American was challenged by a friend to write a book on a loo roll after joking that toilet tissue should come with instructions

 

Roll for your money: The four and a half 'clean' toilet rolls are advertised on eBay with a starting price of $999.95 (£640) but is yet to receive a single bid with the auction ending in the early hours of Thursday morningRoll for your money: The four and a half ‘clean' toilet rolls are advertised on eBay with a starting price of $999.95 (£640) but is yet to receive a single bid with the auction ending in the early hours of Thursday morning

 

Labour of love: He typed out the 822-page Herman Melville novel - which tells the story a sailor hunting a giant sperm whale - on four-and-a-half 'clean' toilet rollsLabour of love: He typed out the 822-page Herman Melville novel – which tells the story a sailor hunting a giant sperm whale – on four-and-a-half ‘clean' toilet rolls

He went through with the weird wager and is now selling the work of art on eBay for a staggering £640.

The man, who is from Florida and goes by the name ‘The-Heppcat'.

He is selling the toilet roll ‘to prove the doubters I actually did it'.

He typed out the Herman Melville novel – which tells the story a sailor hunting a giant sperm whale – on four-and-a-half ‘clean' toilet rolls.

The-Heppcat said: ‘My friend and I once joked that toilet paper should have instructions printed on them for certain people.

‘One day, the conversation grew from there and turned into a wager that i couldn't (or wouldn't) be able to type out a novel on toilet paper.

‘Yes, we did have some time on our hands but, as you can see from the photos, I won the bet.'

It is advertised on eBay with a starting price of $999.95 (£640).

The auction ends in the early hours of Thursday morning, but is yet to receive a single bid.

There are a couple of rips on the rolls, which the seller describes as being in ‘excellent condition'.

Our view from the helm: For a novel that is known for its metaphors and symbolism we're not sure what it being typed out on toilet paper means but in the end if it gets people reading then it can't be a bad thing, right?

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Plotting A Course For Disaster?

NOAA satellites aid in the rescue of 207 people in 2011

January 23, 2012

In 2011, NOAA satellites were critical in the rescues of 207 people from life-threatening situations throughout the United States and its surrounding waters. The satellites picked up distress signals from emergency beacons carried by downed pilots, shipwrecked boaters and stranded hikers, and relayed the information about their location to first responders on the ground.

NOAA’s polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites are part of the international Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking System, called COSPAS-SARSAT. This system uses a network of satellites to quickly detect and locate distress signals from emergency beacons onboard aircraft and boats, and from smaller, handheld personal locator beacons called PLBs.

Of the 207 saves last year, 122 people were rescued from the water, 14 from aviation incidents, and 71 in land situations where they used their PLBs. Other rescue highlights from the year include:

  • Alaska had the most people rescued on land last year with 39, followed by Florida with 11, and California with 8.
  • NOAA SARSAT played a critical role in the rescue of a group of student hikers from a grizzly bear attack in Alaska by directing first responders to the scene.
  • In the pitch of night, two people were rescued from a life raft after their boat sank 140 miles off the coast of Marco Island, Fla.
  • An elderly hiker was rescued 74 miles south of Colorado Springs, Colo., during a heavy snowstorm.

“With each rescue, this system performs the way it was intended — as a real, life-saving network,” said Chris O’Connors, program manager for NOAA SARSAT.

When a NOAA satellite finds the location of a distress signal, the information is relayed to the SARSAT Mission Control Center based at NOAA’s Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Md. From there, the information is quickly sent to a Rescue Coordination Center, operated by either the U.S. Air Force for land rescues or the U.S. Coast Guard for water rescues.

Since 1982, COSPAS-SARSAT has been credited with supporting more than 30,000 rescues worldwide, including more than 6,700 in the United States and its surrounding waters.

By law, owners of emergency beacons are required to register them with NOAA at:  http://www.beaconregistration.noaa.gov. That registration information often helps provide better and faster assistance to people in distress. It may also provide information about the location of the emergency, how many people need assistance, what type of help may be needed and other ways to contact the owner. At the end of 2011 NOAA’s registration database contained over 329,000 registrations.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources. Join us on Facebook, Twitter and our other social media channels.

 

Our view from the helm: Have the advances in technology made boating safer or have we become too reliant on technology and thus we are more willing to take chances because we know that no matter how bad we screw up all we have to do is flip a switch and we'll be rescued?