To clarify what Wayne is referring to:
When I volunteered early this past summer to help a CSR member take a boat from Lake Union in Seattle down to Stockton, CA one of the things we discussed by phone prior to the trip was safety gear. The boat owner assured me (and the other person who had also volunteered to help) that he was going to rent a 4-person life raft for the trip, then return it via truck freight to Seattle when we had reached Stockton.
During the pre-departure discussions I should have asked to see the life raft, but didn't because of the excitement/confusion prior to the next morning's departure My bad.
At some point near the end of the trip, or maybe at the end, the topic of the life raft came up. The boat owner admitted that he had not rented the life raft because (paraphrasing his words) it was too expensive to return it and too much of a hassle.
Both the other volunteer and I felt we'd been lied to and had we known before we departed that there was no life raft, neither of us would have made the trip. To be out on the ocean for several days without a means of saving one's life (IMHO) far outweighs the inconvenience and hassle of returning the lift raft after the trip.
I made mention on CSR of my disappointment and frustration with having been lied to (a lie can be withholding pertinent information as well as giving false information) about the life raft. The other volunteer and I discussed this at length following the trip and I feel confident we both feel the same way. Both of us agreed that we'd make a similar trip together at any time in the future because we trusted each other's judgment but that neither of us would ever take a trip with that boat owner again.
So that's what Wayne is referring to. He apparently feels that by me airing my dirty laundry on CSR I stabbed the boat owner in the back.
Sorry Wayne, but the owner's failure to rent the life raft because it would have inconvenienced him and cost him a few bucks is one thing. Failing to disclose to us that he'd chosen not to rent the life raft and giving us the choice to opt out of the trip was another issue. Both of which, in my mind, were very serious breaches of ethics. I stand by my earlier decision to air my dirty laundry so that others might learn from my failure to ask about the life raft prior to departing.
LTD330, thank you for your comments.