Combat Boots Boarding for the Scuff Dance!
 

Big Blue and his Combat Boots say they have the Legal Right to Board your Vessel! They are going to do the Deck Scuff Dance on your baby! Safety Check or Legal Harassment? Do you have rights?

Alright - what happened??
I believe they can ASK to board, and you can refuse.
If they have reasonable cause, or, if you cannot produce the things they ask for (safety gear, documents...) they can legally board.
I'm not sure on this, just guessing.
Let the experts chime in.

US CODE 14 USC 89

(a) The Coast Guard may make inquiries, examinations, inspections, searches, seizures, and arrests upon the high seas and waters over which the United States has jurisdiction, for the prevention, detection, and suppression of violations of laws of the United States. For such purposes, commissioned, warrant, and petty officers may at any time go on board of any vessel subject to the jurisdiction, or to the operation of any law, of the United States, address inquiries to those on board, examine the ship’s documents and papers, and examine, inspect, and search the vessel and use all necessary force to compel compliance. When from such inquiries, examination, inspection, or search it appears that a breach of the laws of the United States rendering a person liable to arrest is being, or has been committed, by any person, such person shall be arrested or, if escaping to shore, shall be immediately pursued and arrested on shore, or other lawful and appropriate action shall be taken; or, if it shall appear that a breach of the laws of the United States has been committed so as to render such vessel, or the merchandise, or any part thereof, on board of, or brought into the United States by, such vessel, liable to forfeiture, or so as to render such vessel liable to a fine or penalty and if necessary to secure such fine or penalty, such vessel or such merchandise, or both, shall be seized.
(b) The officers of the Coast Guard insofar as they are engaged, pursuant to the authority contained in this section, in enforcing any law of the United States shall:
(1) be deemed to be acting as agents of the particular executive department or independent establishment charged with the administration of the particular law; and
(2) be subject to all the rules and regulations promulgated by such department or independent establishment with respect to the enforcement of that law.
(c) The provisions of this section are in addition to any powers conferred by law upon such officers, and not in limitation of any powers conferred by law upon such officers, or any other officers of the United States.

I take it they were local water cops or state?

It didn't take long for the experts to show up.:D

you should always play nice with the CG............they really are here to protect us boaters..........

last yr I had two CG boats with guns on the front of each approach me. The guys were very profesional and asked to board. He ask me if it was ok to step on my back seat and I placed towels down for him to step on. He had no proplem letting my protect my ride.
He and his buddies seemed all about performance boats

I had a similar experience and as they pulled alongside in a RIB? the ones with the hard plastic PEBBLE FINISH sides (not kind to paint), I asked if I could move to put my fenders out...
The one dude ready to secure a line to my stern cleat said "the sides of this wont scratch your boat"

I said politely "I am 100% legal and in order, could you accomodate me?"

they did. Including stepping on the towels and being generally respectful. The one checking my gear and papers got the short end...
I know where the other two's eyes behind the aviators were the ENTIRE time.

I am quite confident the only reason I got stopped and boarded in the first place is because there was NO traffic (late season, mid week on the ST Lawrence, and had a smokin' blonde with me...
I am in a beautiful 353, within 3-4 miles of my slip and these guys had seen me a zillion times both in that stretch of river and in fact, going in and out of my slip when they camp out out front.

Was the halting and boarding pure BS?
absolutely...
but what are 'ya gonne do?

My only problem
 

My only problem with the Coast Guards (plural as in various countries) is when their go fast boats don't go fast enough. :p

Local sheriff lives fifteen houses from me, sees my boat go out every time I take it out. One day he pulls me over cause he said my numbers were not readable. These are the same numers that came on the boat 14 years ago, still in great shape. It was rough when he wanted me to tie up with him, I replied it was too rough, if he wants to board the boat, he was welcome to walk over any time and I left. He hasn't bugged me since. It was total BS.

CG has started pulling folks over here and checking for passports if your on the outside.. Something about the three mile zone, homeland securahtaaay and the new immigration laws? Boat fishing a tournment a couple weeks ago got hit with a ticket allegedly worth 25k.. :eek: :eek:

:stupid:

Rippem, a good friend of mine from Miami got to meet your friends a couple of years ago in front of the Castle after a late aafternoon high speed pass. Their first statement after viewing the Florida regs were "You're not from around here, are you?" ....:D

We should giive this guys a break, they are only doing what they have been told to do by ther commanding officer's.
I've been boarded, and they spent at least 45 minutes going through my boat, checked everything you could thing off. Tried to talk to them well they were doing ther job, they would not talk, all business.
After they were through they went to the fuel dock, and thats where I was going before they boarded me. When I got here and started talking to the them, they were very friendly .
We need them to do what there doing, yes it may be a pain sometimes. But there hear to protect us, and in this world we need them!!
And when you get in trouble on the water, who to you call for help.

BRILLIANCE!

I'm all for respecting those who serve, and I did, but how much clearer has it got to be that my last boarding was wholly unneccesary, had zero legit indication/cause and was born out of sheer boredom?

United States Coast Guard :D If you were in the seafood business like I was before I retired you would love these guys. :grinser010: LOL

You want all the stories??
or just the top 10??? on the incompetence of the CG in our area

I have seen the nightmare at work many times

Many years ago they backed into the front of my boat with a 42' steel hull boat and took a chunk out of the front of my vessel

I have watched Jr and his pals go in circles when a crisis arose and they had no clue as to how to handle things. Then listed as they called in on VHF to get some direction on how to handle an emergancy that required quick thinking not contimplattion

Average experience of the boaters running the smaller CG boats in our area are about 2 years (Maybe)

I have asked them nicly to take off there shoes before boarding got a bunch of "do you know who your talking to?"

Give these 20 year old guys (and Girls)a uniform and a boat and they just got ten feet tall

There are great People in the CG but those on daily patrol at least around here have no clue

My .25 worth (Inflation ya know)

They were actually pretty good guys, my friend didn't know about the slow zone in front of the Castle, which prompted the quote.
It was early in the summer, the weather was poor and there wasn't a lot of traffic. They were more interested in what powerplant was in the smaller Donzi that had been blowing by their dock for the last couple of days...... (Geoo's X-18 @120 MPH :D :D )

We had been experiencing big issues with CG on our waterway. Total disrespect for people and property when conducting "Safety" checks.

Like a bunch of kids actually. Didnt know their way around the wateway, harassing everyone, bad attitude, etc...

Good to see our tax dollars at use. Meanwhile the real CG are truly protecting our country while these guys play Rambo on some poor guy in his 18" Bayliner!

They can do their job in a professional, less intimidating manner. Since when doesnt the military teach respect?

I was on my seadoo down around the Rio Grand and port Isabel Texas. Pretty intimadating having a 50cal in your face and a 20 yr old on the trigger!!!

We shoot seadoos first and ask questions later!

Coast Guard boarded my boat last fall and he must have been able to tell by the look I gave because he said "don't worry I will be very careful i can tell you take care of your boat". They should give those guys boat shoes! Was a cool guy and then when he left , I went up river and got pulled over again, for a saftey check. Must have been pick on us poor Baja owners day!

Some pretty funny post. They have a CG training facility on texoma and I've yet to see one with the incompentence I've seen mentioned. Now the local PD..............thats a different story. I had one lose a badge in the boat after he boarded. Pretty sure its in the bottom of the lake now:D

The GC In clearlake are very professional and accommodating. Alot of the time you can catch them eating at Outriggers, and all they want to do is talk boats with you.Very nice guys.I have only been stopped once and it was only to check for PFD's only got close enough to talk.

The local sheriffs or WLF don't really bother us.


Where i grew up in La the local sheriff lived down the street and was invited to all the parties and crawfish boils we had so i was never harassed by them:D

during the summer I am out everyday and it is always the same couple cops, not coast guard, but I caught them at the launch ramp one day, talked boats with them for a while, never been stopped once, they give me a wave as I pass by

I thought it was nice of them to provide me with multiple copies of the speed zone regs to take back t the dock :D :D

the ones around here arent bad, but they cant find anything ( they refuse to learn local names for places and or the turnover is too quick) I called them 2 years ago because I boatr was signaling distress on the noth side of manmade island..they had NO idea where manmade was...even though it's less than 1/2 from there dock.

That's funny. Maybe just because I know exactly the Island you're talking of. I also know how tight you need to hug the shore of the Island as your heading out of the river to make the cut over to the Ottawa or Woodtick. It's been at least 8 years since I've run a boat up there, and unless it's changed, I remember that passage well.
Making the cut always still gave me a little "pucker" factor.

The CG and Harbor Patrol where always pretty laid back, and I never had any problems - but now, this is going back a few years.

They stopped a boater up here on potential OUI. Let him go without arresting him. He received a citation in the mail one year and eight months later.

They really have their act together! How can they prove anything a year and eight months later?

There was a time when the CG would call you via VHF and ask to board your vessel. September 11th changed all of that. Due to new Homeland Security laws the CG does not need to ask you anything.
Case in point....
We were pushing 6 barges in the ICW around Lafitte, La one morning when I was tapped on the shoulder by, to my great suprise, a Coastie with gun in hand.:eek:
I had no idea that they had boarded my vessel and at no time did they ask if they could.
They tell me to stop my vessel so they can run a Homeland Security check of myself and my crew. They wake everybody up and make all of us give them our ID's and ran checks on all of us.
During this time there were 4 coasties on board and all but one had their guns drawn. Here we are trying to make an honest living and we get treated like cocaine traffickers down in the Keys.
I understand they have a job to do but I also think they should show us just a bit more courtesy when doing the security checks.

Another story I can share happened just a couple weeks ago in Houston, Tx at the Lynchburg Ferry crossing.
The Coast Gurad had set up a checkpoint ON the ferry so when you drove onto it you were no longer protected by the laws of land.

Being on a public marine transportation vehicle you are now under the jurisdiction of the USCG. They searched every vehicle that got on that ferry for 6 hours straight. They had drug dogs and the whole nine yards. They arrested quite a few people that day.

So in short just always remember that when you step off of the land you are at the mercy of the USCG and they answer to no one.

Chuck

Coast guard has powers that well exceed what would be considered constitutional for regular law enforcement.

The way it has been explained to me is that coasties, and border patrol, can come on your boat when they damn well please, for little or no cause, and can run you through the ringer. If you're in order, you're good to go, if not, you're in trouble.

State and local police agencies do not have the same powers as the coast guard. They need probable cause or a search warrant to board your boat.

And like any profession, experience level and respect for the customer (you, since you pay their salary) varies greatly. Some will be courteous and respectful, some will be *******s, some will show great skill maneuvering their boat with little effort, some will be trying their hardest to keep a twin outboard RIB under control, and not necessarily succeeding.

I believe some of these agencies have a quota for the number of boardings they have to conduct over a given period. A friend of mine's dad was out in a 14' aluminum boat fishing one of the branches of the st. clair river and he was boarded by the coast guard. I believe they actually boarded his boat, just to do things "by the book". Now, more than one of them on this boat would have likely capsized it, and everything on the boat was in plain sight to the officers on the CG boat, but they put a guy on his boat just so they could say they boarded him. This was during a stretch of mediocre weather, on a weekday. Very little traffic out there, he was the only one they could board.

They're out there doing their job, and it's a necessary job that can be dangerous and thankless at times. But I don't think it's unreasonable for law abiding citizens to expect some respect in our encounters with them.

:[QUOTE=CAPTAIN CHUCK;2490366]we get treated like cocaine traffickers down in the Keys.


Actually they treat the cocaine traffickers quite nicely down here, first name basis and all.:D