I probably should have posted this two weeks ago when it happened, but I never thought of it:

On a Saturday evening a few weeks ago, two of our sailors were returning back to our beach in Angola NY from one of the local beach bars. They were sailing seperately, so one did not know about the other and the weather was fairly clear. A gust came up and knocked them both over. Righting bars are new in this area and only about four of us have them; these two sailors did not.

One of the sailors had his cell phone and called the Coast Guard for assistance, who called the local Tow U.S. franchise. The rescue boat operator:

1) Actually found the second sailboat first on his way to the caller.
2) Really didn't know anything about these boats (unfortunately, these were not two of our most experienced sailors)so he wound up TOWING the boats instead of righting them so they could continue on their own.
3) Never discussed the charges for the assistance, but gave them EACH invoices for $1,000.00.

Now, I realize that our sailors made a mistake; I know that the rescuers deserve some adequate payment, but doesn't this sound like usury to you? It's just a very sad thing to take advantage of stranded people like that. I think that if this would ever happen to me (not likely; I have a Hobie Bob Float on top of my H-18 Magnum with a righting bar) I would ask ahead of time what the charges would be; it might make more sense to pull the drain plugs and sink the boat.

Wyatt