Tony Hayward goes Yacht Racing in England’s Isle of Wight

What a complete and utter POS. This jerkoff Tony Hayward’s arrogance is incredible. Only Obama’s arrogance can even compare to Hayward’s. After complaining he wants his life back a few weeks ago, Tony Hayward spent Saturday, June 19th took time off to attend a yacht race around England’s Isle of Wight. According to the Wall Street Journal, Hayward’s decision didn’t sit well with people in the U.S. who have seen their livelihoods ruined by the two-month oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Man, that ain’t right,” said Bobby Pitre, who runs a tattoo shop in Larose, La. “None of us can even go out fishing and he’s at the yacht races. I wish we could get a day off from the oil too.”

Robert Wine, a BP spokesman in Houston, said it was the first break that Mr. Hayward has had since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and setting off the undersea oil gusher. Aww, my heart bleeds.

“He’s spending a few hours with his family at a weekend. I’m sure that everyone would understand that,” Mr. Wine said Saturday.

I wonder if Hayward will understand how many lives (both human and animal) he and his company have ruined. Not like he cares anyway. Maybe the “little people” will understand.

Not Mike Strohmeyer, who owns the Lighthouse Lodge in Venice, on Louisiana’s southern tip, said Mr. Hayward was “just numb.”

“I don’t think he has any feelings,” he said. “If I was in his position, I think I’d be in a more responsible place. I think he should be with someone out trying to plug the leak.”

Environmental groups also slammed Mr. Hayward’s outing. Charlie Kronick of Greenpeace said Hayward was “rubbing salt into the wounds” of Gulf residents whose livelihoods have been wrecked by the disaster.

“Clearly it is incredibly insulting for him to be sailing in the Isle of Wight,” he said.

Hugh Walding of Friends of the Earth said Hayward’s choice of venue was sure to arouse anger. “I’m sure that this will be seen as yet another public-relations disaster,” Mr. Walding said.

Mr. Wine said Mr. Hayward is known to be keenly interested in the annual race around the Isle of Wight, one of the world’s largest. It attracts more than 1,700 boats and 16,000 sailors as famous yachtsmen compete with wealthy amateurs in the 50-nautical-mile course around the island.

Mr. Hayward was watching his 52-foot yacht “Bob,” made by Farr Yacht Design of Annapolis, Md. The yacht has a list price of nearly $700,000.

The outing follows other incidents perceived as missteps by Mr. Hayward in recent weeks. He suggested to the Times of London that Americans were particularly likely to file bogus claims over the spill, then later told residents of Louisiana that no one wanted to resolve the crisis as badly as he did because “I’d like my life back.”

Even the British press, much more sympathetic to the company’s plight, has expressed disbelief at its media strategy. “It is hard to recall a more catastrophically mishandled public relations response to a crisis than the one we are witnessing,” the Daily Telegraph’s Jeremy Warner wrote Friday.

That was before news about the yacht race broke but after the chief executive made his appearance Thursday before a U.S. House investigations panel in which he dodged question after question, claiming he was out of the loop on decisions surrounding the well that blew when the Deepwater Horizon exploded.

As many as 120 million gallons of oil has already gushed into the Gulf.

Crude has been washing up from Louisiana to Florida, killing birds and fish, coating marshes and wetlands and covering beaches with tar balls.

A pair of relief wells that won’t be done until August is the best bet to stop the massive spill. By late June, BP hopes a newly expanded containment system can keep nearly 90% of the flow from the broken pipe from hitting the ocean.

But the buzz Saturday on social-networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook was all about Mr. Hayward’s yacht outing, with many noting that Gulf residents want their lives back too.

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June 19, 2010 · Filed Under oil spill


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