NYCkayaker 5 boro and the USCG

[j,duffy1]

Just to put Tim's comment about the Harrison Street Regatta in context.  
The Regatta has been run for about twenty seven years in one way or 
another.  I have been involved in running it for about twenty of those 
years.  When I started in 1987 I got a permit because we were crossing 
the river, and there was a possibility of interfering with traffic.  
After about ten years the officer at the CG (the first one who was in 
place for more than one year) said that since there had never had been a 
complaint I could skip the permit application, and just give them a 
call, in case there was some special conflict.  When we started running 
the event without crossing the river (when Tim took over) I stopped 
calling also, since there was no longer any probability of our 
interfering with traffic.

I have not had a great many dealings with the CG, but I have found that 
they have never been improved by getting someone else to represent me.

Jim Wetteroth,

Tim Gamble wrote:

>I'd like to make one comment on all the USCG crazy rules.
>
>4 or 5 years ago when the first large circumnavigation event was being
>planned I argued long and hard, but unsuccessfully, with the organizer NOT
>to ask for a CG permit.
>
>My reasoning was that we should be free to run these kind of events
>without asking permission to exercise our right to paddle. It is a
>dangerous precedent to have to ask for permission, since once you ask they
>can say no, or they can put silly unreasonable limits on you.
>
>I learned this lesson long ago at the Downtown Boathouse when planning our
>annual race the Harrison St. Regatta. We don't ask for permission, we run
>the event safely, and we have up to 75 boats on the water at once and it
>all goes just fine.
>
>Now you are seeing some silly unreasonable limits being imposed, and in
>the case of motorized escorts you have expensive barriers being put in
>your way.
>
>What is next? requirement for a permit for every trip over some arbitrary
>number of kayakers? Soon we will end up like the poor bicyclists in
>critical mass where the police decide a limit of the number of people on
>bikes to constitute a parade. Then when you apply for a permit they say
>no, then if you run the event anyway you are breaking the law and they
>arrest you. A fun event like critical mass has turned into a civil rights
>battle and a pissing contest between the bikers and the cops.
>
>If you run a tour correctly, and don't block commercial traffic, or
>require a shutdown of the waterways you shouldn't need a permit, and you
>shouldn't ask for one, in my opinion.
>
>---------------
>Tim Gamble
>917-721-8851
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