A handy tip for crossing the Channel
- Thread starter Halcyon Yachts
- Start date
syvictoria
Well-known member
Great stuff! I'd like to see him go up a ferry ramp on it though!
Tintin
Well-known member
I sense a business opportunity renting bikes at either end ???
prv
Well-known member
It's isn't obvious at all - people are together on the ship in exactly the same way regardless of what vehicle belonging to them is down on the car deck. I'm genuinely baffled why you think it would make any difference.
Unless you're operating under the misconception that people sit in their cars during the voyage? They absolutely do not, because it's dangerous and hence prohibited. The MCA recently got quite upset about lorry drivers trying to evade the rules and stay in their cabs at sea, and advised ferry companies to make more careful checks of the vehicle decks to evict them before sailing.
Pete
Sailfree
Well-known member
Dont think you are right certainly not in case of Brittany Ferries
I have travelled twice recently during Covid epidemic.
The Brittany Ferries require you to arrive now 90mins before departure and you are only allowed to leave you car with gaps to ensure no queue on stairs. Also adding foot passengers would add more people making 2m rule difficult in open spaces.
Even in lockdown Brittany ferries operated a limited service to enable goods in lorries and travellers with medical reasons (to attend essential NHS appointments) to Travel.
I now additionally book a cabin even though I only use day crossings (Caen to Portsmouth) and take a travelling kettle and food so that I snack inside my cabin and hence have no contact with anyone during the whole journey.
All sensible changes IMHO.
Sharky34
Well-known member
I know that people don't sit in their vehicles, but the ruling is there for a purpose, not for some clever arse to find a way around it.
Why bother to have any rules otherwise?
cherod
N/A
the whole place has gone barking mad
prv
Well-known member
The only plausible purpose we've seen is that, if passenger numbers are limited, it's best for the company's bottom line to make sure they're all vehicle passengers who pay more than foot passengers.
That has nothing to do with "infecting innocents with covid" as you originally claimed. The infection risk is the same either way, only the finances change.
I don't know why you're being so rude to Halcyon Pete for costing the ferry company £50 or whatever the difference between a car and a bike passenger is.
Pete
JumbleDuck
Well-known member
On some Scottish ferries - including the Wemyss Bath to Rothesay ones - CalMac have special dispensation for drivers to stay with their vehicles during the crossing. In fact they are not allowed to leave their vehicles, save for trips to a toilet opening off the car deck.
This dispensation is limited to fifty people on the car deck, so sometimes places on a sailing are offered only if passengers are willing to board and disembark on foot. However, sometimes that's not possible because foot passennger numbers are limited too.
Halcyon Yachts
Well-known member
Just to clarify, it was one of the ferry Captains that told me why they don't accept foot passengers.
I do feel for them, ferries aren't cheap to run. If you can only take half as many passengers due to covid rules (regarding spacing on seats etc) then I get why they don't want to lose out on any revenue from the money they make on vehicles.
Our guys weren't braking any rules. You can book your ticket with a car, a bike, maybe even a horse (?) but not as a foot passenger...
Pete
I do feel for them, ferries aren't cheap to run. If you can only take half as many passengers due to covid rules (regarding spacing on seats etc) then I get why they don't want to lose out on any revenue from the money they make on vehicles.
Our guys weren't braking any rules. You can book your ticket with a car, a bike, maybe even a horse (?) but not as a foot passenger...
Pete
Sharky34
Well-known member
It doesn't matter if its "plausible", its the current rule, so stick to it.
colhel
Well-known member
What rule has been broken?
Sharky34
Well-known member
Breaking the spirit of the rules, much like the Cummings debacle imo.
Lucy52
Active member
"maybe even a horse (?)" - It seems to me that if a dog needs a kennel, then a horse would need a stable. But maybe OK if you keep your horse in a Horse Box. 
colhel
Well-known member
Sorry, in my opinion quite the opposite. The rules are, go to work if you can't work from home.
James W
Active member
He was working, as allowed by the rules. Pete has a business to run, taxes to pay, employees wages to meet. This country has been crippled financially by this horrendous pandemic, please refrain from being pious when no rules (in fact or in spirit) have been broken.
syvictoria
Well-known member
(My bold above.) How is it that trains and buses don't appear to have to follow the same rules? There certainly didn't seem to be any restrictions on seating on the one (in the UK) train that I was on last month?
Sharky34
Well-known member
What has that to do with the ferry?
Sharky34
Well-known member
Haven't they?
Using some device to undermine them, imo, is breaking them.
syvictoria
Well-known member
By device, do you mean a bike!? The 'temporary' suspension of foot-passengers on most cross-channel routes has been in place since the end of the first lock down. It's not a recent thing.
