Brittany Ferries foot passengers

[laika]

Maybe this falls into the category of "stuff everyone else except me knew..." and if so forgive me but...anyone thinking of joining a boat (e.g. in cherbourg, St. Malo) by Brittany Ferries as a foot passenger, or returning home after a one way trip by small boat...consider what you're taking in your luggage.

The ferry terminal in Portsmouth has a handy big sign at the foot passenger security entrance telling you what you're not allowed to take...predictable things like guns and knives with blades over 7cm. Except those are generic rules applicable to all the ferries leaving from there and Brittany Ferries have additional self-imposed rules which don't allow foot passengers to take:
- knives of any kind, even small multitools
- lifejackets

You can take whatever you want (including the above) in a vehicle and there are no checks between the car deck and the passenger decks. The restaurants are replete with knives and you can buy a combo bottle opener / sharp pointy knife in the onboard gift shop. I only discovered these "rules" when my mini leatherman (5cm blade) I've had for 20-odd years was confiscated at security in St. Malo. With enough google-fu you can find the rules on their website but you have to know what you're looking for and why would you think the rules were different to any other ferry company? *Fortunately* the security folks were possibly the nicest, kindest most sympathetic transport security people I've ever encountered and after some pleading and a bit of emailing I was able to pick up my leatherman in Portsmouth the following day. I was actually impressed with Brittany Ferries: the staff are excellent, the restaurant surprisingly good and generally a positive experience, but the lifejacket and multitool thing is rather silly.

 

[Koeketiene]

Got caught out as well last year.
'Lost' a Leatherman Wave to them.

 

[Sandy]

Many years ago I delayed a sailing from Plymouth to Roscoff by 15 mins as I had my cooking knives in my luggage; the knives at the place we rent are rubbish. The crew looked after them for me and I collected them in France. On the return I handed them in at check-in. Since that date I've put up with the awful cooking knives at the apartment, but often wonder if I rung them up and arranged for the knives to be handed in at check in if that would work.

The staff are fantastic, as the food on the Amorique is so, so we always plan to sail on the Pont Aven; the restaurant is fantastic and a three hour lunch is a great way to do the crossing.

 

[penfold]

No lifejackets? Are they concerned you might abandon ship mid-channel? Fatuous nonsense of this sort encourages contempt of authority. The knives thing is also silly and should be dealt with via some form of strong box that they can be deposited in and then collected.

 

[Mister E]

How about you use a cheap bike then you can leave your luggage on that for the crossing.

 

[st599]

How about you use a cheap bike then you can leave your luggage on that for the crossing.

They treat push bike passengers the same as foot passengers. Motorcycle riders aren't though.

 

[Mister E]

They treat push bike passengers the same as foot passengers. Motorcycle riders aren't though.

They didn't used to as I dropped a couple of mates off when they did a cycle tour in Brittany some years ago.
Some luggage was left on the bike that was on the vehicle deck.

 

[st599]

Wel last year they scanned pannier bags before you went on board.

 

[Mister E]

Wow things have changed, I will inform my mate thanks.

How would they get on with cooking stuff if cycle camping?

 

[DownWest]

The lifjacket bit makes me think of a couple of friends who delivered a biplane. Not much room for spare kit, so they wore their flight suits for the return on a scheduled regional plane. As they boarded with their parachutes over their shoulders, a wide eyed flight attendent hurried up and told them to hide them as it would freak out the other passengers. The chutes were taken aft and stashed away from sight...

 

[Sandy]

No lifejackets? Are they concerned you might abandon ship mid-channel? Fatuous nonsense of this sort encourages contempt of authority. The knives thing is also silly and should be dealt with via some form of strong box that they can be deposited in and then collected.

I sail on several large coded vessels and am forbidden to take my personal life jacket. I am informed that their insurance company insists that only the boats life jackets are worn as there is an audit trail of when checks were done on the kit. Having had to do the monthly check on 30 lifejackets it is one of the most tedious jobs know to man, but needs a keen eye for detail and good packing skills. Give me chart corrections any day.

 

[PlanB]

Slight drift but - we nearly lost a Leatherman when going through security to get on a high speed train in Madrid. This after going through security twice previously in the past week at other stations without bother. Lots of pleading involved but we kept it.

 

[MikeCC]

Thanks for the heads-up - going by foot in June for a sailing trip. Will give a spare lifejacket to crew leaving with boat before me. Don't know what to do about Swiss army knife. Carry it everywhere except flights, and now it seems ferries too.

Not sure why someone on foot would seem to be a higher risk than a motorist. Sure they don't search every handbag taken up from car decks.

 

[Sandy]

Thanks for the heads-up - going by foot in June for a sailing trip. Will give a spare lifejacket to crew leaving with boat before me. Don't know what to do about Swiss army knife. Carry it everywhere except flights, and now it seems ferries too.

Not sure why someone on foot would seem to be a higher risk than a motorist. Sure they don't search every handbag taken up from car decks.

It might be worth a call to their Plymouth office @MikeCC to ask if you can carry the LJ onboard, they are usually extremely helpful.

 

[penfold]

I sail on several large coded vessels and am forbidden to take my personal life jacket. I am informed that their insurance company insists that only the boats life jackets are worn as there is an audit trail of when checks were done on the kit. Having had to do the monthly check on 30 lifejackets it is one of the most tedious jobs know to man, but needs a keen eye for detail and good packing skills. Give me chart corrections any day.

That's an argument for locking them up along with the penknives for the duration of the passage, not banning them. It's bad enough with busybodies in airlines banning LJs without loonies in ferry companies getting in on the deal. Ferries, ro-ros especially, present enough actual risks to passengers; that some desk jockey has decided that there is legal jeopardy presented to the company by a passenger hypothetically drowning while wearing a personal lifejacket because one of their vessels hypothetically sank demonstrates a form of corporate derangement that prevents employees discerning between actual and imagined risk.

I generally have sympathy for the 2nd mate(or very occasionally a conscientious 1st mate) who gets the privilege of unpacking, checking and then repacking all the survival onesies on board at the beginning of a trip; safety is(or should be) everyone's business and I do eyeball the thing myself anyway.

 

[Sandy]

That's an argument for locking them up along with the penknives for the duration of the passage, not banning them. It's bad enough with busybodies in airlines banning LJs without loonies in ferry companies getting in on the deal. Ferries, ro-ros especially, present enough actual risks to passengers; that some desk jockey has decided that there is legal jeopardy presented to the company by a passenger hypothetically drowning while wearing a personal lifejacket because one of their vessels hypothetically sank demonstrates a form of corporate derangement that prevents employees discerning between actual and imagined risk.

I generally have sympathy for the 2nd mate(or very occasionally a conscientious 1st mate) who gets the privilege of unpacking, checking and then repacking all the survival onesies on board at the beginning of a trip; safety is(or should be) everyone's business and I do eyeball the thing myself anyway.

Personally, I prefer to wear a life jacket, locking them up is really not the answer.

I would prefer to wear my personal LJ as it is more comfortable, I know where everything is, if deployed the PLB3 automatically tells everything within AIS range that I've gone for an involuntary swim and lets Falmouth CG know that I will be needing a hospital bed if the crew manage to fish me out of the water.

The problem is something happens and legislators/insurance companies over react and we all 'suffer', e.g. tiny bottles on aircraft, then jobsworth interprets the rules and you must dispose of all drinks before going through security even though you can take an empty bottle through; everybody covering their backside.

At least we have better knowledge of what to do should it hit the fan, don't hang about getting to the muster station, rather than ignoring the calls to abandon ship and taking the opportunity to help yourself at the bar.

 

[laika]

I posted this more to raise awareness than to gripe: we've had lots of threads on lifejackets on planes. I'm sure plenty of folks help out on one way on channel crossings with mates and wouldn't think twice about taking their kit bag back on the ferry which, as far as I could tell, would be ok with other carriers but Brittany Ferries seem to have imposed their own rules apropos of...???? The staff involved in my experience were very definitely *not* jobsworths: they were sympathetic and did everything they could within the confines of their job requirements and I have nothing but praise for them. But the knife rule is absurd given the lack of checkpoint between car deck and passenger deck, the presence of knives in the restaurants and the selling of knives in the gift shop. I understand why a commercial vessel wouldn't want you to *wear* your own lifejacket (they have a duty of care and have not checked your lifejacket is maintained) but not allowing them to be carried when they're allowed in vehicles with no check between vehicle deck and passenger deck? I'm separating my feedback to Brittany Ferries because I don't want the positives for their staff to be tainted by the criticism of the rule they were working around...

 

[Koeketiene]

The knives thing is also silly and should be dealt with via some form of strong box that they can be deposited in and then collected.

It's beyond silly.
They check the lugage of foot passengers, but not car passengers...