NEW YORK– A Captain of the Port Order requiring suspension of operations was issued and delivered Friday, Aug. 20, 2010, to the owner/operator of the New York Sailing School in New Rochelle, NY.
The basis of the suspension is the failure of the owner/operator of the sailing school to comply with the federally mandated Drug and Alcohol Program (DAPI). The owner/operator has not enrolled his business in a DAPI program and has no recollection or records to prove any drug or alcohol tests have ever been conducted upon himself or any of his employees.
The discovery of this apparent violation was the result of an investigation carried out by the U.S. Coast Guard, Sector New York, following the death of Irish native and Brooklyn resident Eoin Curran on July 25 when he was swept overboard in a severe squall from a New York Sailing School sailboat. Curran was a student at the school and was not wearing a life jacket at the time of the incident.
Coast Guard personnel conducted investigations at the New Rochelle school several times after Curran’s death, most recently on Wednesday of this week.
[amazon-product]1882502485[/amazon-product]Under the Captain of the Port Order, the school cannot resume operations until such time as it is not only enrolled in a drug and alcohol testing program but is in active compliance with testing and record keeping requirements. The Coast Guard must specifically rescind the Captain of the Port order for the school to resume operations.
In addition, the Coast Guard condemned and terminated the operation of a 30-foot wooden hulled launch used by the school to ferry students from shore to the school’s sailboats, moored in Echo Bay off of New Rochelle. This termination was based upon numerous structural deficiencies.
