Coast Guard suspends search for Florida teens

[naturalmwa]

After 8 days the coast guard is calling off the search for the two 14 year old boys tonight. What a sad outcome.

What should we learn from this? Should there be age restrictions on boater? Should the electronic beacons that are required on commercial craft be mandatory on pleasure boats too?

 

[torbee]

They sleep with the fishes

 

[linkshero]

Maybe they wanted to actually go to Cuba....

 

[thewop]

This reminds me. There shouldn't be new laws to regulate against every tragedy.

 

[naturalmwa]

This reminds me. There shouldn't be new laws to regulate against every tragedy.

Not every one, just the ones we could prevent with a $250 bit of safety equipment. How much do you think that 8 day search cost? I bet we could get a big chunk of the boaters in FL one of these for a similar amount.

 

[bagdropper]

I started "piloting" my own boat before I hit the age of 10 on the Mississippi. I can say that having a couple 14 year olds, no matter how trained and experienced they were at handling a boat, that a storm on the open sea might have been a bit more than they were capable of handling. Also, for all we know, they may have been robbed and tossed overboard. We just don't know.

Unfortunate...but remember, they found the boat. The problem was, the kids weren't near it. So no...no need for a law making it mandatory. And I wouldn't discount the fact the kids told their parents they were staying off the open ocean and didn't.

If these kids were as good of boaters and as responsible kids as people are saying they were...something completely unforeseen happened to them.

Now, maybe having some sort of emergency transmitter or inflatable beacon on say life jackets would be a good idea, but the kids would have had to have been wearing them for that to work.

 

[TexMichFan]

After 8 days the coast guard is calling off the search for the two 14 year old boys tonight. What a sad outcome.

What should we learn from this? Should there be age restrictions on boater? Should the electronic beacons that are required on commercial craft be mandatory on pleasure boats too?

Would the beacon have made a difference? They would have found the boat faster and been able to narrow the search area but still no guarantee of successfully finding the boys alive.

Florida as does most states require that boat operators complete a boating safety course so it would be interesting to know if the boys had taken this course.

A terrible tragedy but I don't know if another law would be the difference. I spend a lot of time on the water and the amount of stupidity displayed is remarkable.

 

[hawkeye54545]

After 8 days the coast guard is calling off the search for the two 14 year old boys tonight. What a sad outcome.

What should we learn from this? Should there be age restrictions on boater? Should the electronic beacons that are required on commercial craft be mandatory on pleasure boats too?

What we should learn is that tragedy is a sad fact of life and we do not need new restrictions and regulations cutting into our freedoms everytime an accident happens.

 

[ICWestfan]

Purina Shark Chow.