The ABC reports that the French sailor rescued off Western Australia's south coast at the weekend has described his experience as the worst five days of his life.
He has thanked the rescuers.
Talk is cheap.
At present, if I understand it correctly, rescuing one of these sailors in the Antarctic waters to the south of our continent costs money, big-money, I'm told it's in the vicinity of $1 million. So talk is cheap. Welcome, but cheap.
When the race organisers hold these competitions I think they should ensure that the sailors or competitors if you wish, get some form of insurance against the risk of their yacht being damaged during the race and the yachtsman requiring some form of rescue.
In the event that one of these conditions takes place I then think it is up to the race organisers and/or the insurance company to reimburse the country that has taken the trouble of rescuing the sailor. There is no reason that the taxpayers of the country that makes its warships available to rescue this sailor should be held accountable for the costs that are incurred in rescuing the sailor.
I do not want people to change their ways and stop challenging the elements in a race in which the sailor competes, I also do not want to to try and change the law of the sea which makes it incumbent on whichever country happens to own the waters in question to rescue sailors as a matter of course. My question is about who should be responsible for the cost.
In my opinion it should be the race organisers or their insurers.
Anyone care to comment? If not, have a very happy New Year.
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... and by comparison when an Aussie got lost in the Canadian wilds, people there were upset at having to fork out by comparison a pittance to save him - http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/World/20081206/1121956.html
Agree, if people want to challenge the elements, good on them, but they should be expected to take out their own insurance to fund such resues.
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