A headline you don’t see every day:
Florida man arrested by Coast Guard for trying to cross Atlantic in human-sized hamster wheel
That makes Lawnchair Larry look like a veritable Einstein.
At least I now know that undertaking a “manifestly unsafe voyage” is actually against the law.
While the Florida Man in question is clearly a few shiners short of a shoal, I have to wonder what the Coast Guard would have made of Harbo and Samuelson’s vessel.
Why would the Coast Guard stop him? How was what he was attempting illegal?
The would-be hamster claimed to be raising money.
“My goal is to not only raise money for homeless people, raise money for the Coast Guard, raise money for the police department, raise money for the fire department,” Baluchi said. “They are in public service, they do it for safety, and they help other people.”
I get the impression that he thought that they should have let him continue because he was (or claimed to be) raising money for charitable purposes.
I was fully behind him right up until:
Baluchi threatened to kill himself with a 12-inch knife if anyone tried to apprehend him, and claimed to have a bomb aboard
I guess Florida Man just can’t help doing Florida Man shit.
If he got sponsors and permits and a support vessel they’d probably let him do it, but that’s clearly well outside of this man’s abilities to organize.
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-33/chapter-I/subchapter-S/part-177
An operator of a boat who is directed by a Coast Guard Boarding Officer to take immediate and reasonable steps necessary for the safety of those aboard the vessel, under section 4308 of Title 46, United States Code, shall follow the direction of the Coast Guard Boarding Officer, which may include direction to:
(a) Correct the especially hazardous condition immediately;
(b) Proceed to a mooring, dock, or anchorage; or
(c) Suspend further use of the boat until the especially hazardous condition is corrected.
For the purpose of section 4308 of Title 46, United States Code, “other unsafe condition” means a boat:
(f) Designated manifestly unsafe for a specific voyage on a specific body of water due to:
(1) Unsuitable design or configuration, or
(2) Improper construction or inadequate material condition, or
(3) Improper or inadequate operational or safety equipment, and set forth in an order issued by a District Commander according to the provisions of § 177.04.
He has a history of failed bubble expeditions:
Could he just say, it’s not a boat? Is there a definition of what constitutes a boat?
(b) Boat means any vessel—
And a vessel is:
(f) Vessel includes every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water.
Perhaps he could claim that the vessel is so poorly designed that it’s not actually capable of being used for transportation on the water.
In spite of the immediate first-person evidence that it is being used at that very moment as water transportation.
I guess if you could go full-on sovcit and argue what you were doing was somehow not transportation but… some other word that I can’t make up because I’m not a sovcit whackjob.
The vessel appears to be totally uncontrollable. Shouldn’t being a form of transportation require a non-zero probability of arriving at your destination?
That’s what I was thinking-- how ya steer the guldarn thing? Seems like a big inflatable sphere would do better, provided it was reasonably puncture-resistant…
I had to check to see if this was a zombie thread because I’d seen this story before (as Walken_After_Midnight noted). I don’t know if it was his attempt in 2014 or 2016 that I was remembering.
I think in practice, that “boat” is more wind-powered than human powered. It doesn’t matter how fast you run, that thing is going whichever direction the wind is blowing.
News bump:
Guy managed to negotiate a pre-trial diversion which forbids his ever trying this kind of stunt again over water, either fabricating another “vessel” or making another attempt using any kind of unseaworthy thing of any provenance. Also mandatory safe-boating classes, because obviously the root problem was a lack of good seamanship training.
Guy has shifted goals from “walking around the world on water” to “walking around the world on land”, which is arguably less cloudcuckoolander nuts.
2024 news report: man arrested for trying to cross the Himalayas wearing shorts and flip-flops.
I’m guessing it’d be more quirky and/or dangerous…
2024 news report: man arrested for trying to cross the Himalayas on a pogo stick, while wearing roller skates.