Any maritime lawyers on BB? Would love to hear their take.
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The source from the Wiki article points here:
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IANAL but it seems pretty clear that all parties were dicks!
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“The full list of top crash locations is not currently available.”
I’m curious how many of them I’ve survived haha!
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Even more unfortunate is that the gentleman in question is on life parole for a murder he is convicted of committing 40+ years ago, and he might end up back in prison because of this confrontation. Tairua boat-rage video man a convicted murderer on life parole - NZ Herald
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His anger-management issues have gotten him into trouble before you say?!
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No idea what started the argument, possibly the people in the larger boat had cut him off earlier, or maybe just happened to be using the dock when he wanted it.
My benefit of the doubt evaporated when he took a run at the boat that contained children. When I saw the woman whacking him with the oar I found myself thinking ‘serves him right’. I know it was not the best response, but had he rammed my boat with my kids I can’t say I wouldn’t have responded the same.
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From the article @Lux posted above:
A friend told the Herald Dixon appeared to have “lost his rag” when two vessels ignored the 5 knot speed limit, sending wake towards his yacht resulting in damage to Dixon’s inflatable dinghy.
The video shows an enraged Dixon ramming an aluminium trailer boat with his inflatable, which then begins to deflate.
The woman on board the other vessel, Tairua School deputy principal Catherine Browning, then wades towards Dixon swinging an oar. Children on the boat can be heard crying.
Browning is now facing employment action because of the clash.
Frankly, although it was imprudent (and redundant) to go after the dinghy with the oar, under the circumstances it seems excessive for her to lose her job over it.
The irony is that the rageaholic might have actually had a legitimate insurance claim if his dinghy really did sustain any damage before he totaled it. Now he’s bought himself much bigger problems from his parole board.
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I’m not clear how one would do “a thousand dollars worth of damage” (apparently around $760 US) to an inflatable dinghy just by creating a wake; clearly his boat was still functional at the time of confrontation so all I can think of is that the larger boat’s wake would cause his craft to scrape up against the dock or something.
In any case yeah ramming a larger boat because you’re upset about the damage your boat already sustained is obviously beyond irrational.
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I’d hazard a guess his math wasn’t entirely…sober.
Not to mention staying out of prison for over 40 years on parole for murder and then risking getting put back in the slammer during the peak of a global pandemic.
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Having now read the article, I don’t think that would be unfortunate at all.
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I am not saying hitting him with the oar was an appropriate response, clearly it was not. Only that I understand it and might well have done it myself if those were my kids in the boat he just rammed.
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The proper nautical term for someone like this is “asshole”.
And christ, what an asshole he is.
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I know and I agree. That’s why I liked your comment.
I’m also not convinced from the video that she was necessarily targeting him. I see her whack the deflating dinghy right before a bystander takes the oar away from her.
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The motor. Oddly enough, some dinghy motors are really expensive so that they can be lightweight and operate well with little draft.
ETA: Nah, I took another look and he’s just got a shitty little Johnson
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outboard motor.
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But the motor was clearly still operational or he wouldn’t have been able to ram the other boat. Plus how would a wake damage the motor anyway?
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Had. 
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Outboards can be badly damaged and still operate. A friend of mine damaged his 40hp Merc last summer on some rocks thanks to a VERY badly positioned navigational marker (the can marking the channel was in 6” of water!). He still hasn’t repaired it because the 20-year-old motor would cost $1800 to repair. That’s more than it’s worth but thousands of dollars less than what it would take to replace. And it runs, just not optimally.
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Oh I’m convinced she was targeting him. Because you don’t jump out of your boat and walk 20 feet in the water to smack a deflating dingy that attacked you. You do it to smack the asshole who tried to harm your children though.
Good on the bystander for taking the thing away. I might have let her get a couple more whacks in first, but maybe the bystander didn’t realize what had happened prior
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