ColRegs in Tall Ships Amsterdam - great video

[Sgeir]

Apologies if you've already seen this , but it might be worth a second look.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I hadn't seen it. Many thanks for posting.

I loved the bit where the blue ferry just went back and forth amidst all the opposing traffic. Brilliant.

 

[dylanwinter]

excellent - and amazing

 

[capnsensible]

Thanks!

Reminds me a bit of coming back overnight from Cherbourg to the Solent. Got pushed a bit west so entered via the needles channel. As we passed Yarmouth we discovered the start of A Whitbread RTWR. Bonkers.

 

[Angele]

And there was me thinking the Solent got busy at times....

 

[johnalison]

I hadn't seen it. Many thanks for posting.

I loved the bit where the blue ferry just went back and forth amidst all the opposing traffic. Brilliant.

I have always understood that these ferries have to give way to all traffic, but it looked as if this was replaced by "small gives way to large".

Who on Earth puts on flourescent green sails? I suppose it was the Irish.

 

[prv]

Who on Earth puts on flourescent green sails? I suppose it was the Irish.

I didn't spot them in the video, but if it was a three-masted barque with all green sails, it was probably the German ship Alexander von Humbolt. They originally got green sails quite some time ago as part of a sponsorship deal with Beck's beer. My understanding is that the deal ended, but they had become rather fond of their unique colour scheme and decided to keep it.

Pete

 

[RichardS]

I have always understood that these ferries have to give way to all traffic ...

I'm surprised by that as I would have assumed that harbour authorities would normally dictate that, in the absence of ColRegs, ad-hoc traffic would have to give way to scheduled ferries.

Richard

 

[prv]

I'm surprised by that as I would have assumed that harbour authorities would normally dictate that, in the absence of ColRegs, ad-hoc traffic would have to give way to scheduled ferries.

Rules for ferries vary. The chain ferry at Poole used to have to give way to everyone, but they changed it after an accident as the MCA reckoned it was simpler for the ferry to just go and everyone else work around it. The ferry at Cowes used to be give-way although I have a feeling that might have changed too.

I'm not sure of the rule for the Gosport ferry, but de-facto he just goes

Pete

 

[westhinder]

The rule on Dutch inland waters is 'pleasure craft yield to professional traffic'.
I take it the ferries are professional, and given the speed at which the Amsterdam ferries travel, I am not inclined to test that assumption.

 

[Lucky Duck]

Rules for ferries vary. The chain ferry at Poole used to have to give way to everyone, but they changed it after an accident as the MCA reckoned it was simpler for the ferry to just go and everyone else work around it. The ferry at Cowes used to be give-way although I have a feeling that might have changed too.

I'm not sure of the rule for the Gosport ferry, but de-facto he just goes

Pete

I have been onboard on gossie ferry while it has waited for boats to pass going up or down stream, invariably they stare straight ahead and avoid any possible eye contact with anyone on the ferry

 

[benbc]

The rule on Dutch inland waters is 'pleasure craft yield to professional traffic'.

The rule on my pleasure craft is that I try to avoid getting into situations where professional seamen and women are inconvenienced by me. They're try to earn a living for heaven's sake; I'm just farting around.

 

[john_morris_uk]

The rule on Dutch inland waters is 'pleasure craft yield to professional traffic'.
I take it the ferries are professional, and given the speed at which the Amsterdam ferries travel, I am not inclined to test that assumption.

Is that your rule or is it written down?

How can they tell whether I'm on my holidays or running a sailing or motor boat course? (In November in Orkney, I'm running two courses on motorboats that are workboats for sea farms normally, but could easily be private fishing boats used for pleasure. )

 

[Topcat47]

I try to work on the assumption that "Might is Right" and keep out of the way of anything bigger than me. It doesn't always work though, particularly with the IoW car ferries.

 

[overstag]

John, it is indeed a rule that pleasure craft give way to professional craft. But only on inland waters.
Within the professionals, the ferries trump everybody else. They always have right of way.

 

[john_morris_uk]

John, it is indeed a rule that pleasure craft give way to professional craft. But only on inland waters.
Within the professionals, the ferries trump everybody else. They always have right of way.

Local convention or actually written down? I come back to my previous post in which I point out I am sometimes at sea professionally on what appears to be a pleasure boat and sometimes I'm on the water for pleasure on what appears to be a work boat. How is the 'professional' user supposed to know what rule to apply and what to ignore?

Such a local rule actually ends up with more confusion IMHO but I'm not going to tell the Dutch how to manage their waterways.

 

[johnalison]

I try to work on the assumption that "Might is Right" and keep out of the way of anything bigger than me. It doesn't always work though, particularly with the IoW car ferries.

From which I assume that you occasionally collide with them?

 

[oceanfroggie]

Apologies if you've already seen this , but it might be worth a second look.

Thanks, that's a great clip. We've been in the middle of the same at the tall ships in Waterford. It looks chaos with the fast time lapse, but the vessels are actually moving very slowly in reality, and all the small craft manage to avoid getting in the way or hitting anything. Great bit of video theatre though.

 

[westhinder]

Local convention or actually written down? I come back to my previous post in which I point out I am sometimes at sea professionally on what appears to be a pleasure boat and sometimes I'm on the water for pleasure on what appears to be a work boat. How is the 'professional' user supposed to know what rule to apply and what to ignore?

Such a local rule actually ends up with more confusion IMHO but I'm not going to tell the Dutch how to manage their waterways.

Not local convention, but actual law, the 'Binnenvaart Politiereglement' or BPR as it is commonly referred to. Covers all Dutch inland waters, as mentioned in my first post. It is primarily meant to create a clear hierarchy between the very dense commercial traffic (barges, tugs, working craft in general) on some inland waterways and recreational craft, and it achieves that goal remarkably well. A yacht, be it sail or motor, that is used professionally for instruction, remains firmly within the category of recreational craft and will give way to say a tug whose skipper is on a sunday family outing. It is the craft that defines where it comes in the order of things. You can try and find any number of hypothetical borderline cases, but in practice it is quite unambiguous and a case of might is right put into law.

 

[Fossil]

We were at Sail2000 quite by accident as we were on passage from North Holland back to our base at Wemeldinge when we came through Amsterdam and found it all going on. It was just like that video - and after doing two or three circuits of the tall ships along with all the other craft, we had one of the most pleasant evenings I have ever spent, in the company of some very hospitable Dutch yachties, watching the sun go down, the endless parade of small boats and then the firework display. Happy memories!