Americas Cup

[Paul_f7]

Well said Henry,

The number of skippers who had not read the LNTM and didn't even know the enforcement zone was in existance was mind boggling. I was marshalling on the water and everyone I encountered followed the advice we offered. I have to admit the main offenders for crossing into the exclusion zone from North to South were a few yachts and a local fast rib ride operator, who lodged a complaint with QHM against 2 Marshal boats but was told by QHM to do as the marshalls directed him - he was not at all happy, then after the 2nd race (whilst the exclusion zone remained in force due to the air diplay) he decided to take his passanges straight across the course.... QHM said they would be paying him a 'visit'.

All in all a fab event, great atmosphere and BAR winning made it for me and made up for the soaking I got on Sunday!

P

 

[prv]

I was marshalling on the water

In that case, thanks for your efforts :encouragement:

And you might be able to answer something we were wondering on the day - who were the marshals, and how were they recruited? My guess was that the organisers approached local sea schools to hire/borrow their boats and instructors, but my mate reckoned they might have just put out a call for volunteers. Or something else?

Pete

 

[rwoofer]

Well said Henry,

The number of skippers who had not read the LNTM and didn't even know the enforcement zone was in existance was mind boggling. I was marshalling on the water and everyone I encountered followed the advice we offered. I have to admit the main offenders for crossing into the exclusion zone from North to South were a few yachts and a local fast rib ride operator, who lodged a complaint with QHM against 2 Marshal boats but was told by QHM to do as the marshalls directed him - he was not at all happy, then after the 2nd race (whilst the exclusion zone remained in force due to the air diplay) he decided to take his passanges straight across the course.... QHM said they would be paying him a 'visit'.

All in all a fab event, great atmosphere and BAR winning made it for me and made up for the soaking I got on Sunday!

P

I would think that the majority of people would not know about LNTM as they are simply not publicised. The only reason I knew was because of postings on here.

Otherwise I don't think I have ever looked them up as a matter of preparing to go out and I've been sailing in the Solent for nearly 40 years...or maybe that makes me less likely to look anything up?

 

[prv]

Otherwise I don't think I have ever looked them up as a matter of preparing to go out and I've been sailing in the Solent for nearly 40 years...or maybe that makes me less likely to look anything up?

I wouldn't go and check before a normal trip out, but in this case I wanted to know what the arrangements were for watching the race. The main America's Cup site pointed to the NtMs for waterborne visitors.

(Actually I do subscribe to email notifications to the Southampton notices, but mostly from nosiness rather than practical use.)

Pete

 

[henryf]

Given the nature of the event you would have to be quite some skipper to not have a quick poke around on the internet prior to venturing out on the water. You know it's going to be busy, you know the boats are going to need room to race and you know there is a lot of commercial traffic around. I was actually surprised (pleasantly) how few restrictions there were in place.

I don't check the LNTM every time I go out of the harbour but Haslar marina has a notice board as you step on the pontoon. They also printed out all relevant information for people available FOC in the main office.

Listening to CH11 as we prepare the boat gives a flavour of what traffic is coming in and out and also alerts to any specific problems or incidents.

Henry

 

[Paul_f7]

Hi Pete,
Marshalls were recruited by Portsmouth Sailing Club who put out a call for volunteers.
P

 

[Paul_f7]

I understand, but if I was going to spectate I would want to know where I was going (after all a skipper should have a plan) and therefore I would have made sure I was prepared and in this case downloaded the course layouts from either the ACWS or QHM website, even the most basic search produces lots of charts. Not to forget that all vessels are obliged to listen on channel 11 when entering Portsmouth area and who were making regular annoucements about the exclusion zone.