“A longtime endurance runner and peace activist trying to reach Bermuda in a homemade floating “Hydro Pod” was rescued by the US Coast Guard off the Florida coast on Saturday after he began suffering from fatigue.
Coast Guard air crew picked up Reza Baluchi and the bubble on Saturday morning, Coast Guard spokeswoman Marilyn Fajardo said in a statement. He was transported to a nearby Coast Guard station and found to be uninjured, Fajardo said.
A statement on Baluchi’s website said the Iranian exile had planned to make the 1,033-mile (1,660-kilometre) trip in his self-designed bubble to raise money “for children in need” and “to … inspire those that have lost hope for a better future”.”
The news reported that the cost of the rescue was in the vicinity of $10K. We need to start making these idiots pay the bill for their rescues when they do stupid stuff like this.
The news reported that the cost of the rescue was in the vicinity of $10K. We need to start making these idiots pay the bill for their rescues when they do stupid stuff like this.
Or just stop rescuing the idiots. Your boat catches fire one thing, your bubble for running on water sinking a different thing.
This is the worst -
“The Coast Guard rescued a man Saturday from the Atlantic Ocean after they advised him earlier in the week he did not have enough supplies in his hydro pod bubble vessel to make a trip to Bermuda.”
I really want to know how that guy makes a living. It seems like he’s spent his entire time in America by not working and surviving off of others in the guise of charity.
I haven’t had to do it, but I imagine it takes into account fuel costs, man hours expended, any expendable items like food or heating blankets that are used, etc.
Hmmm… are these so different in a way that matters?
In the sense that a home made kit ultra-light is different from a 727, yes and yes it matters. When you buy a boat you buy from a professional builder that builds to a safety standard, is equipped with safety equipment and has years of experience etc etc. When you head out into the ocean with a “Home made bubble runner”…well you’re an idiot. When people take reasonable steps to protect themselves from harm and something goes sideways it’s a rarity. When something goes wrong with a “Home made gizmo sent out into harsh conditions” it’s damn near guaranteed.
Another way to look at it, you can get insurance for your boat, no sane insurance person will sell you insurance for your “Ocean going home made bubble thingy”. The risk being taken is unknown and WAY higher then the boat.
Both presumably required the coast guard for rescue.
That is true. But one actually meets coast guard ocean going specifications, the other certainly does not. Upon failure of those specifications it kind of makes sense that the coast guard would “Have you’re back”…not so much of you head out on something they would not reccommend for even the deep end of the pool.
I haven’t had to do it, but I imagine it takes into account fuel costs, man hours expended, any expendable items like food or heating blankets that are used, etc.
Yeah, that’s what I’d think, too.
In which case, I think the cost calculation is almost totally bogus. It isn’t as if the Coast Guard wasn’t going to burn that fuel or “expend” those man hours, anyway. The costs of feeding this loon and giving him a couple of blankets certainly doesn’t come close to 10 grand.
Besides, that’s what the Coast Guard is for- that’s one of the big reasons we pay to have a Coast Guard in the first place.
I haven’t had to do it, but I imagine it takes into account fuel costs, man hours expended, any expendable items like food or heating blankets that are used, etc.
$10K for recusing this idiot is cheap compare to what a SEARCH and rescue would’ve cost
He’ll make it up quickly, in some combination of speaking gigs and maybe a TV spot on 60 Minutes Sports or Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and a couple of pages in* Outside*
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I haven’t had to do it, but I imagine it takes into account fuel costs, man hours expended, any expendable items like food or heating blankets that are used, etc.
Yeah, that’s what I’d think, too.
In which case, I think the cost calculation is almost totally bogus. It isn’t as if the Coast Guard wasn’t going to burn that fuel or “expend” those man hours, anyway. The costs of feeding this loon and giving him a couple of blankets certainly doesn’t come close to 10 grand.
Besides, that’s what the Coast Guard is for- that’s one of the big reasons we pay to have a Coast Guard in the first place.
I don’t know if the number for the cost is accurate or not, but it doesn’t sound totally off. Fuel and man hours are expensive. Also, even if that’s the cost of the rescue, that doesn’t mean it was additional cost. Just that the efforts to rescue represent an expenditure of that amount. The USCG surely counts on a certain amount of cost for rescuing idiots and the legitimate distressed vessel as a function of doing business. However, that budget isn’t unlimited. If they’re spending it on knuckleheads like this, the budget is expended more rapidly.
Also, even if that’s the cost of the rescue, that doesn’t mean it was additional cost. Just that the efforts to rescue represent an expenditure of that amount.
My point. People are talking as if this guy cost the Coast Guard an additional 10,000 bucks. He didn’t. Those ten thousand buck were going to be spent whether the Coast Guard used the time to pick him and his plastic bubble out of the water, or cruised around training and patrolling. He didn’t really cost them much of anything.
** The USCG surely counts on a certain amount of cost for rescuing idiots and the legitimate distressed vessel as a function of doing business.**
Good to know, especially since that IS the Coast Guard’s business.
Those ten thousand buck were going to be spent whether the Coast Guard used the time to pick him and his plastic bubble out of the water, or cruised around training and patrolling.
Maybe, or maybe not. I don’t know how the USCG budgets, but I do know that the Navy has a certain amount of dollars for ships to get underway for training, and the money for ships to get underway for actual operations comes from another line of accounting.
Good to know, especially since that IS the Coast Guard’s business.
