Chris_Stannard
regular
Reged: 11/01/2002
Posts: 602
Loc: Cowes. Isle of Wight
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Regret I cannot make Eastleigh from Cowes. I do however have a question, or rather a request.
The Background
As I sit in my flat looking over the Solent I watch the many yachts that come into Cowes. Especially at night it is obvious that many of them do not know what they are doing as you see boats motoring with their tricolours on, and in some cases with their steaming and bow lights and indeed even their anchor light. Short of giving them and auto changeover switch with engine start one wonders how to make people get it right.
I have a problem in that my wife will not let me go into Yarmouth in the summer not because I cannot handle my boat, but becuse she is afraid of the many idiots who cannot and who create mayhem there every weekend. I have also seen a power boat driver climb into his 45 foot 30 knot plus boat when completely drunk and then drive off down the Solent on a busy Sunday afternoon. I have to say that I stayed in harbour to allow him to get well clear.
I recently did an article on RNLI Safety Sea Checks for my club magazine and used data from the RNLI on call outs for lifeboats. The number of peoploe who got stranded, called out the lifeboat with maechanical problems etc, was almost unbelievable.
When I lived in HongKong, many years ago, you could not take a boat out of the harbour unless there was a ticketed person onboard, and I mean a 14foot waterski boat. It did not stop people owning boats.
MY POINT
I believe that every boat should have a qualified person onboard when it goes out, okay so you can say less than 4 metres and only capable of 6 knots the rules do not apply. I consider that the arguments I have seen put forward by the RYA are spurious andcome into the patroniosing class of "Daddy know's what is best, and you have to accept it." Licences are required on the highway, I believe that they should also be required for boats and that we need a proper debate on the subject to propose and bring forward a sensible system before Mr Prescott and his ilk impose some half baked system on us.
Chris Stannard
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**DONOTDELETE**
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No-one is in favour of inconsiderate or incompetent behaviour on the water and the RYA is as keen as you to prevent it.
The RYA has been considering this problem for well over 50 years and has looked closely at other countries with compulsory licensing schemes.
The conclusions we have drawn are:
1. There is no evidence that the (relatively minor) accident rate will improve. The UK already has one of the best safety records in the world, significantly better than many countries where a license is mandatory.
2. As soon as a license becomes compulsory, the evidence is that many members of the boating public may be tempted to settle for the cheapest and quickest method of becoming legal, instead of progressing steadily through a thorough, voluntarily attended training scheme.
3. In the UK the resulting bureaucracy, expense and confusion will hit the law abiding, conscientious yachtsman hard while the handful of cowboys will easily escape detection.
The drunken powerboat driver is already acting illegally by contravening the harbour bylaws. Our best hope is to educate the boating public to take a responsible attitude. We are looking at incentives to encourage new owners to take training – possibly a training voucher like the one available for purchasers of new jet skis.
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mtb
regular
Reged: 30/01/2002
Posts: 1179
Loc: ten miles from east coast Bost...
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I know there must be many many people who like my self could never have got started in boats if right at the beginning a high cost of both training and test's was levied .
Your right there are a minority who place them selves and others at risk but procedures are in place to deal with almost all situations.
If small clubs did more to welcome in new or aspiring members and encouraged a formal and low cost approach to training then it surely would go a long way to promoting safety awareness.
If you got your way , there would not be a leisure industry built around providing services to boat owners, as a consequence thousands would not have a job.
I have many years of safety behind me and encourage others to take a proactive approach to safety , all my safety equipment is both more than adequate and up to date, would some one making a living out of training really improve this .
Even now I look at the huge cost of training and don't !! .
Mick
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats/
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bigmart
regular
Reged: 14/01/2002
Posts: 1920
Loc: Hampshire
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You must be mad.
You can sit back & congratulate yourself, about what a fantastic sailor you are, look down on all those plebs that fail to meet your exacting standards, but if you don't provide a natural path for new people to enter our passtime easily & sensibly, you will preside over the death of our sport.
As everyone, who has access to the statisics is saying, the current system is safe & it works. For Gods sake leave it alone.
Martin
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