Now I understand the inclusion of the word “Broken” in your screen name. The problem is I’m attempting a logical conversation with a child so I’ll try putting this in terms even you can understand. So I get this right, your position is if we had a hurricane this past Saturday, the tournament should still have been run and under no circumstances weather wise should it ever be cancelled. I know those are the current rules but that’s the change I’m suggesting the tournament should make for the betterment and ultimate safety of all involved, JCAA included. Your position is the tournament should assume no responsibility for the safety of the participants in an event they sponsor. They ask participants to support their cause but they want zero responsibility for angler’s safety when weather conditions deteriorate like they did Saturday. I struggle with how anyone can have that point of view as it contributes to creating an unsafe situation and favors ports that are less impacted by the weather element like Sandy Hook and Jersey City in this past tournament. You continue to bring up the issue of multiple places to fish, which we all understand no one on this planet has more numbers in their GPS than the great and powerful Bobber. I bring up safety and you translate that into fishing locations. Your words not mine. You have a propensity for twisting things around to facilitate the points you want to make. Sandy Hook provides a completely different set of options as opposed to Belmar, Pt. Pleasant and probably most of the other ocean based ports. Having fishing options has everything to do with location and structure as opposed to your implication of number of way points in anyone’s given GPS. I suppose guys sailing out of Pt. Pleasant and Belmar should have attempted running 20 or so miles up to Sandy Hook in Saturday’s conditions to take advantage of the protection that area offers. You imply inside fishing areas in Belmar or Pt. Pleasant are comparable to areas in Raritan Bay which is simply not the case. I have well over 150 way points in my GPS but if I had to access the ocean to fish them it presented the same unsafe situation. Because you enjoy the benefit of an area which has quality locations to fish regardless of the weather and wind conditions, you translate that into meaning anglers from ocean based ports simply don’t have the magnitude of numbers to fish as the great one himself. Your narcissistic views, even for you, are reaching new levels. And for what it’s worth, I signed up for a fishing tournament, I didn’t make a $210 pledge to a charitable organization……period! Direct me if you can to where it says “JCAA Charity Fundraiser”, maybe I filled out the wrong application. JCAA may very well use the funds in a charitable manner, I have no idea and don’t really care since it’s none of my business, but I signed up as I’m sure most everyone else did to compete in a fishing tournament as opposed to making a contribution to a charity as you infer.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 100 entrants who never left the dock Saturday due to the weather conditions. There had to be at least 15 on the SRI bridge alone at 5:30 Saturday morning who decided it wasn’t worth the risk to sail. If there were that many anglers who opted not to fish and each was in the fluke Calcutta, that would represent ~$21,000 being ponied up by anglers who never had an opportunity to wet a line. That’s simply an inequitable situation for participants who are being asked to support JCAA’s cause. Just look at the port results themselves as two thirds of the ports didn’t fill the top 10 spots.

Here’s the simple truth of the matter. Saturday’s conditions should have prompted a cancellation date but since the tournament elects to not have a weather date and ignore angler safety the tournament was on. I’m not asking anyone to change this year’s tournament. What I am campaigning for is a change for next year and beyond because sooner or later JCAA’s luck will run out and someone will sail in conditions like Saturday’s that will cost someone bodily harm if not worse. If that happens, everyone loses and I assure you there will be a lawsuit regardless of the verbiage in the rules and regulations. GUARANTEED! If the JCAA cares about the safety of the anglers who support their event and the parity of making sure everyone has an opportunity to fish, they should immediately implement a weather date to back up those sentiments. It’s in everyone’s best interest including the JCAA as I believe more people will sign up. It presents an option and a fall back date which currently doesn’t exist and it takes the decision of sailing in severe conditions out of the equation. How is that not a win situation for everyone? It appears JCAA President Paul Haertel understands this and is in favor of this change but apparently other officials involved don’t feel the need to concern themselves with participant safety.

Either way, Sharkyispy’s initial post and my subsequent posts were an effort to bring this matter to a level where constructive discussion might lead to a positive change benefiting the JCAA and all future tournaments. Paul took the time to address the board, which is very appreciated, and laid out an alternate structure earlier in this thread which in my opinion makes perfect sense and addresses the points which were thrown on the table. I was hoping more people would opine on his proposal so he could take it back to the Committee to review and hopefully facilitate adopting changes to the 2015 tournament. As usual you choose to take the thread and turn it into a sarcastic, I’m holier than God, I’m the great and powerful Broken Bobber, I can fish anywhere anytime and charm the board with your normal sarcastic pompous bs attitude which quite frankly is growing old. If you have nothing constructive to add to the thread, do the board a favor and refrain from saying anything. Your nauseating self-indulgent posts serve no purpose here and are relevant in your own mind, no one else's.

Dakota