I ran across this and thought it to be an interesting situation.
Coast Guard Cites Deaf Boater
Sunday, September 21, 2003
By Jack Innis
Steve Turner
Can No Longer Skipper Without Hearing Person Aboard Craft
A San Diego recreational fisherman was ordered by the Coast Guard to terminate his voyage Sept. 9 because he is deaf. The order came after an encounter with a patrol boat in San Diego Bay.
Steve Turner, 52, of South Park, was inbound aboard his 23-foot Parker Flying Fingers, when a Coast Guard patrol boat stopped him at 7 p.m., about 200 yards west of the Zuniga Jetty. Turner was returning from a daylong albacore trip with three passengers, all deaf.
“I was entering the harbor, and there was an outbound cruise ship about three-quarters of a mile away,” said Turner in an e-mail interview. “I saw this Coast Guard patrol boat coming full speed towards me with blue lights flashing, and when I looked around, there were no other boats except me, so I began to wonder why.”
The patrol boat intercepted Flying Fingers and instructed Turner to make sure he steered well clear of the cruise liner.
In response to possible terrorist threats, Coast Guard San Diego has established a cruise-ship security zone that prohibits vessels from operating within 100 yards of any cruise ship entering, moored in, or departing San Diego Bay unless authorized by the Coast Guard Captain of the Port to do so.
Turner communicated to the boarding officer that his original course on the right side of the channel would have left more than a 100-yard buffer, but he agreed to steer even farther from the ship. Turner estimates that his original course - on autopilot - would have brought him no closer than 100-to-150 yards to the cruise ship.
Turner changed course but was quickly pulled over again.
“Before the cruise liner approached, we got stopped again,” Turner said. “We spent about an hour on the water, with the patrol boat bumping into my boat in the middle of the bay, while the officer in charge talked on his cell phone to what I assumed to be the main Coast Guard office.”
While the boats drifted, the cruise liner passed by.
The patrol boat then escorted Flying Fingers to the Shelter Island launch ramp and issued a citation for “inability to comply with navigation rules” and “unsafe conditions creating especially hazardous conditions. Terminated use.” Turner was also cited for a paperwork violation.
The boarding officer, Petty Officer 3rd Class Joseph Jinks, communicated by writing on a note pad that since Turner was deaf, he could no longer operate his vessel - effective immediately, Turner said.
Turner asked Jinks to point out a specific navigation rule that bars the deaf from operating vessels. Jinks pointed out a section regarding sounding of horns and signals and wrote on his note pad that since Turner could not hear such signals, he had no business operating a vessel, according to Turner.
“This might shock you, like it did me as boat owner and captain for 27 years,” he said. “They flatly ordered me not to operate my boat Flying Fingers any more. They stated that since I have my hearing loss, I am not able to respond to navigational sounds; therefore, I have no business to operate or navigate a boat on the water.”
Navigation rules are quite specific on that point, according to Coast Guard spokesperson Jamie Devitt-Chacon: “Navigation Rule 5 states, ‘Every vessel shall at all times maintain a proper look-out by sight and hearing as well as by all available means appropriate in the prevailing circumstances and conditions so as to make a full appraisal of the situation and of the risk of collision.’ Navigation Rule 4 states, ‘Rules in this section apply to any condition of visibility.’ ”
From the Coast Guard’s perspective, the drama began to unfold as the patrol boat was escorting the cruise liner out of the harbor. Noticing that Flying Fingers could potentially violate the 100-yard security zone, the patrol boat attempted to hail the craft on VHF radio channel 16. When that attempt failed, the patrol boat broke off from the cruise liner to intercept the returning anglers.
“Even though Flying Fingers at no time entered the security zone, the escort boat wanted to make sure that the vessel’s operator was aware he was near a security zone,” said Devitt-Chacon. “The decision to terminate a vessel’s voyage is never an easy one.
“The boarding officer has to determine in his own judgment whether it’s safe or not. Frankly, a person could be obeying all the rules, and the boarding officer could terminate because of safety concerns. There are just too many possibilities to be covered by individual rules.”
The back of Turner’s citation indicates that the matter will be forwarded to the appropriate Coast Guard district commander to determine whether a civil penalty will be assessed. One reporter was told that no penalty will be assessed in this case.
“There will be no fines or further action,” assured Devitt-Chacon. “All he has to do is come into compliance about watch standing.”
Even though the Coast Guard plans no further action on the matter, Turner could still appeal by requesting a meeting with the agency in the manner stated on the citation, according to Devitt-Chacon.
It was not clear as of this writing whether such an appeal would address only the propriety of Flying Finger’s voyage termination, or the fairness of navigation rules that seem to prohibit the deaf from operating boats in the capacity of lookout.
“While one my crew was talking to Jinks at the launch ramp, another Coast Guardsman told me verbally - I can read lips - that I could operate my boat only if I have a hearing person on board,” Turner said.
Turner is president of the 80-member Southern California Deaf Anglers Club, which was established in 1973. There are approximately 28 million deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in the United States, according to the National Association of the Deaf.
Source: The Log, California's Boating Newspaper
http://www.thelog.com/news/newsview.asp?c=74621
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