RYA question timeHere is the result of a Q and A session with the RYA's chief executive Rod Carr on 1600-1800 GMT Tuesday 14 January. This is a moderated forum and any posts made here will not appear at the time of posting.
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.
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.
Location: ten miles from east coast Boston the wash uk
Posts: 1,232
Re: Surely all boatowners should be qualified?
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 !! .
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.
I'm 19 year old, no sailing qualifications other than a radio licence and a college run first aid course and I sail our family 30ft modern cruising/racing yacht to various destinations around our local waters of the Irish sea and around the western Irish coast with my girlfriend and uni mates.
I've never called the lifeboat for any failure, ive battled in 96knot gusts in a marina to stop the boat from being destroyed, i've spent several hours reassembling the throttle arm on the yanmar inboard several miles offshore, I've dived under the boat to sort out a fouled sail drive, I've repaired and worked on most of the secondary yacht systems while underway, ive been up the mast in a force 8 to free off a stuck halyard, I've drawn up pressure charts from the shipping forecasts etc etc etc... It would be nice to get certificates with it all on but jezzz! I can't afford to go on courses!
I also race laser 2's and a lot of the so called qualified instructors are sh*te, the qualified rescue boat drivers are totally incompetent, ive seen many day skippers, yachtmasters etc fowl up so much in berthing manovous in a slight wind, I even know a couple who won't remove a log pin! A course can't prepare you for the unpredictable sea, it can lead people into a false sense of security just because someone has done this course they don't suddenly know how to manoeuvre a yacht out of a finger berth with a 20knot wind blowing up the stern, they more than likely end up pinned against the end of the finger and/or other yachts.
It says a lot that RORC (royal ocean racing club) don't ask for qualifications to do there bigger races, they ask for experience in xxx amount of miles. The time and money spent on courses is better spent on getting to know your boat, and getting your boat properly equipped and buying and reading a good book.Remember it's not going to be your course theory that gets you out of a pickle, its your experience!
I'm 19 year old, no sailing qualifications other than a radio licence and a college run first aid course and I sail our family 30ft modern cruising/racing yacht to various destinations around our local waters of the Irish sea and around the western Irish coast with my girlfriend and uni mates.
I've never called the lifeboat for any failure, ive battled in 96knot gusts in a marina to stop the boat from being destroyed, i've spent several hours reassembling the throttle arm on the yanmar inboard, I've dived under the boat to sort out a fowled sail drive, I've repaired and worked on most of the secondary yacht systems while underway, ive been up the mast in a force 8 to free off a stuck halyard, I've drawn up pressure charts from the shipping forecasts etc etc etc... It would be nice to get certificates with it all on but jezzz! I can't afford to go on courses, I don't need to!
I also race laser 2's and a lot of the so called qualified instructors are sh*te, the qualified rescue boat drivers are totally incompetent, ive seen many day skippers, yachtmasters etc fowl up so much in berthing manovous in a slight wind, I even know a couple who won't remove a log pin! A course can't prepare you for the unpredictable sea, it can lead people into a false sense of security just because someone has done this course they don't suddenly know how to manoeuvre a yacht out of a finger berth with a 20knot wind blowing up the stern, they more than likely end up pinned against the end of the finger and/or other yachts.
It says a lot that RORC (royal ocean racing club) don't ask for qualifications to do there bigger races, they ask for experience in xxx amount of miles. The time and money spent on courses is better spent on getting to know your boat, and getting your boat properly equipped and buying and reading a good book.Remember it's not going to be your course theory that gets you out of a pickle, its your experience!
Some of what has been said is all good and well - but do you EVER take your boat out?
Do you have the same problems driving on the road as you are MUCH more likely to be involved in an accident with someone who HAS got a licence.
I have Day Skipper Qualification and am aspiring for my Yacht Masters but that has to wait due to financial restraints so don't think i am just posting this because i am not qualified.
But I believe that it should be imposed only on those with boats over a certain dimension or capability of speed.
I would suggest that boats over 30 feet LOA or capable of speeds over 8 knots should have a licensed person on board and in charge.
Such would not prevent people becoming interested, would encourage enthusiasts to learn more and, probably, reduce insurance claims.
I also believe that third party insurance should be compulsory, though how it would be policed I am not sure.
I have seen, and experienced the results of compulsory licensing and don't like the minmum standards attained. But either dimension, speed or range restictions (and perhaps insurance benefits) would go a long way to ensure that the encouragement is there for the novitiates to improve.
Surely all boatowners should be qualified?
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