Experts?

I sometimes wonder about the competence of so called "experts".

OK - I'm not saying naval architects etc, they are experts in their own fields, but I bet even they weren't born with more infallability than the Pope!

Some short time ago...I suggested that even the "authorities" whom we entrust to protect us from ourselves & our own stupidity and are supposed to set the example for us, are sometimesleft wanting when it comes to setting that example.

My gripe at the time was having just bought a boat from them at tender, which was supposedly in survey...which because they were too tight to write a cheque out (to themselves) was in fact out of survey.

So I paid them to re survey their own boat....and it failed!!!

Yes - the fella's who drive around - handing out tickets to law abiding citizens like ourselves - hadn't kept their own (near new) boat up to their own standards! Fire extinguishers hadn't been stamped / inspected / serviced since the boat was built new! Likewise flares epirb etc were all out of date, not to mention a myriad ofother electrical (nav lights etc) problems...

The lawyer member Guillermo suggested I was some kinda renegade that he was put here on Earth to litigate against...in case I caused anarchy, and his gravy train dried up!

Well - Karma's a beach (or more likely a reef I'd say judging by the looks!)

Yes their new boat....run agound on a reef and sunk...by the experts! (In flat calm weather....broad daylight?)...well - what can you say!

It's amazing the things you see on the road sometimes...like a newish boat, being trailered for repairs, with weed hanging from the radio aerials...and out the scuppers - the prop mangled like a pretzel...and a ruddy great hole in the starboard side!

The article they published in this weeks newspaper...only a day or two BEFORE the sinking?

Yes - you guessed it...a timely reminder to recreational skippers...and us pro's....that in the event of any accident or incident at sea - we pro's have to advise them immediately and rec skippers have aweek to do so!

One wonders...if they are so fast to advise themselves when they goof up? (or even better - us - who pay their wages at the end of the day!).

So - do I send this pic the the local press...or not?

And - more importantly if I do...will the authorities take it upon themselves to harrass me if I do - for giving the public - the right to know the news of the day?

Interesting conundrum....

Cheers!

[marshmat]

If your local paper is anything like mine, that'd run front-page.
Then again, local authorities around here tend on the whole to be very well qualified, the marine units especially.... some of the police haven't really figured out how to aim the radar gun yet, but on the whole we have a lot of the world's best. Can't say the same for the bureaucrats of course...

local press have the details....and photo!

Will be interesting to see if they run with the story...given that they published the warning to us seafarers in their latest issue - which was presumably a re-write of some timely Chrstmas boating season press release from the authorities.

The thing that irks me most...is the veiled threats they innclude in their press releases - to rescind marine certificates of competency in cases of accidents/incidents reported.

DO THESE SAME STANDARDS APPLY TO THEIR OWN STAFF?

Me thinks there will be two sets of rules here....one for the public and a different set for those who enforce the rules...

This is why it's difficult to have respect...for these very same authorities on SOME occasions.

Cheers!

[FAST FRED]

"Me thinks there will be two sets of rules here....one for the public and a different set for those who enforce the rules...

This is why it's difficult to have respect...for these very same authorities on SOME occasions."

" SOME ?"

The "government" is Employer of last Resort ,

the folks that love not being able to be fired for incompetance , and a pension flock to fill the rolls .

At least it takes them out of real workplaces where they would be dangerous.

Tax Tax , Spend Spend , Elect Elect , it never ends, .

If Voting could change anything , it would be ILLEGAL!

FAST FRED

Yes - you can rest assured - that when I self appoint myself - benevolent dictater of this poor misguided and sorry world...things will change pretty quick...and these guys who would presume to lord it over us....are the first ones to be lined up against the wall and shot!

In truth...I've walked both sides of this ricepaper trail grasshopper....as the govt dude with the powers....and in the real world where it's dog eat dog.

What irks me - is when I was in the situation these young power hungry fella's now find themselves in - I sure as heck never treated anyone the way they do today...

I guess thats why I take exception...and rail against authority...becuase in my day we could achieve a result with education...but today it's different.

I must be getting old.

In years to come -I will be the cranky old guy with a walking cane in the nursing home that whacks the nurses with his cane and is a right royal pain in the butt etc...

I can hardlly wait!

Cheers!

[safewalrus]

Remember the definition of "Expert".......

"Ex" is a has been,

"Spurt" is a drip under pressure!

Well that's my view

"I don't suffer from insanity, I'm enjoying every minute of it!"

[LP]

Must fall under the same heading as,


"Those who can't , . . . . manage."

[PAR]

According to Walter P. Stapleton, Head Judge, US 3 Circuit Court of Appeals "An expert is any person with above average knowledge on any given subject." I've often remembered that phrase over the last 35 years since I had it used against me.

All people screw up, sometimes quite well, even expertly well. A good man doesn't roll around on the soft grass giggling like a school kid about it, lest he's never made a decent screw up himself.

[safewalrus]

Unless it's his own 'screw up' then he positively wets himself, sometimes in private sometimes not depending on what he's screwed up -and how much carnage is left in his wake!

or didn't say - more to the point!

Sadly - the days if investigative journalism appear to be well & truly dead!

Where are our Watergate types these days?....

State of the art boats, moored by the experts shouldn't sink overnight should they?

I wonder if they can blame the designer?

Summuts crook in Tellerook, my instincts tell me!

Cheers!

[D'ARTOIS]

If I read this kind of news items I ask myself "how stupid do you want to be?"

Ithis the thumbnail picture resembles the boat involved I must remark that it is a very clumsy design, as is appears to me.