Dangerous Boat Yards

That depends on whether the owner of the knackered yard has insurance.

I don't understand why a cheap yard also has to be strewn in broken rubbish and be dangerous? Doesn't that imply carelessness, lack of pride and sloppy practice not cheap prices? I have been in two 'cheap' yards with very limited facilities and lots of people working on their own boats, but both were well organised and tidy places. The area's around the main work sheds were tidy and if there was waste scrap etc it was in defined areas or in big skips.

If you rent out space to the public then you have a duty to ensure that it is safe and that innocent people don't get maimed.
 
I'm thinking of asking the H & SE to look into a long standing problem I've noticed.
It seems that there are many people operating machinery without due consideration for the potential consequences.
This is heavy machinery involving huge kinetic energies, no guards are fitted, there is no failsafes or deadmans handles, if the operator becomes incapacitated suddenly while operating one there is a high probability of injury or death for them or those round about them.
I think the machines are called motor vehicles.

Can we keep a sense of proportion in all this?

Edit - Sorry Chrusty - not aimed at you - seems I hit reply while on the wrong post!
 
[ QUOTE ]
I'm thinking of asking the H & SE to look into a long standing problem I've noticed.
It seems that there are many people operating machinery without due consideration for the potential consequences.
This is heavy machinery involving huge kinetic energies, no guards are fitted, there is no failsafes or deadmans handles, if the operator becomes incapacitated suddenly while operating one there is a high probability of injury or death for them or those round about them.
I think the machines are called motor vehicles.

Can we keep a sense of proportion in all this?

Edit - Sorry Chrusty - not aimed at you - seems I hit reply while on the wrong post!

[/ QUOTE ]


That's OK Mike...........made me smile anyway. I have to admit that some of the posts on this subject are perishing depressing, do some of them think that people can't think for themselves, that they have to have rules and guidelines for everything??? One of my favourite H&E signs is the ones they put in public tiolets when they are cleaning them, "Caution Wet Floors".......really, well damn my eyes, I would never have known! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Does make you wonder if the world is now populated by a bunch of ninnies!

Ah well, I suppose it's a sign of the sh*ty litigatious times we live in, I do feel very sad at what people are becoming, they stub their toe on something or other, and straight away they are looking to sue some poor sod, never a thought that maybe it wouldn't have happened if they looked where they were walking, it's always got to be somebody elses fault hasn't it. I was born a bit over 76 years ago, and I think that people my age have had the best of it.

Ah well, grumble, grumble....moan, moan, fings aint wot they used ta be! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
I love dangerous boat yards. Old machinery lying around, skips to browse through, antiquated tractor with exposed moving parts still in use for launching, children playing in the mud under the drying piles, abandoned boats propped up on dubious bits of wood.
Don't tell anyone - treasure it.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I love dangerous boat yards. Old machinery lying around, skips to browse through, antiquated tractor with exposed moving parts still in use for launching, children playing in the mud under the drying piles, abandoned boats propped up on dubious bits of wood.
Don't tell anyone - treasure it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah now Clifford........you are speaking my language! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif Have one on me! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
With you on this Chrusty.

I am so glad that I am part of an organisation which is positively Dickensian in its attitudes. Long may it be so.

No hard hats, no high viz jackets, no steel toe caps, ancient machinery, entire area a complete death trap if you are not careful. We are all still alive.

I do take care, am aware of all around me and am prepared to accept the risks as a trade off against what would be a dull, sterile and expensive alternative. I find that facing these inherrent dangers each and every day sharpens my respect for them.

Compare that with the local marina where the staff wear high viz vests and lifejackets when walking on the pontoons on a sunny day.
 
Come on now - there is dangerous and DANGEROUS ... if the yard owner(s) just don't give a fig then it could be too dangerous that even a careful customer will become injured or killed due to no fault of their own.

If, for example a large heavy door is your only access to an outboard store (that you require) and that door is falling off it's hinges then it is dangerous and should be fixed.

Again, if the pontoons are rotting away and now the boards break up underfoot, then that is also dangerous and should be fixed.

H&S can be taken too far, but that is no reason not to be reasonable in a yards approach to it.
 
Council inspectors came and inspected the rather spit and sawdust riding stables where my daughter rides and works at weekends. They could see the place was not awash with money, and I was impressed that the requirements they came up with were not only sensible, but affordable as well, and they gave the yard time to do what they had asked and set a re-inspection date that was quite generous.

People will always grumble about having to do things, but in this instance the yard owners spoke well of the inspectors. The reinspection went fine.

If its done properly it doesn't have to be the heavy hand of bueaucracy.

Tim
 
Alternatively pick up the broken glass and put it in the bin where it belongs.

Ask the owner to pay you for doing his job for him.

Frighten him with tales of jailed and fined owner/managers when accidents have resulted.

Report him to the local authorities.

Find a yard owner who behaves more responsibly toward his customers.
 
Contrary to earlier posts I do not think that the issue will be one for the HSE. They are primarily interested in matters of employment and employee safety. (Unless of course you are an employee in which case there is a whistle blowing page on the HSE website)

As a paying customer your remedy in the event of injury or damage will lie in contract and common law so does the yard have insurance to cover its legal liabilities to its customers and visitors.

That said we all have freedom of choice. We can choose what risks we are prepared to accept and those we are not. Do we cast off when we read the weather forecast or do we return to the pub? Do we let our children play conkers without safety goggles, gloves and helmets or do we allow them to discover their own appetite to risk?

That freedom of choice leads some folk to pay exorbitant prices to ‘Chain Marinas’ but leaves others to take their chances in trap riddled run down boatyards.

Pay your money – take your choice.
 
Well Stephen, it's your thread, and you have had a lot of different views on this one, so what are your feelings and or intentions?
 
Thank goodness, I thought it was just me..

Where else would I find that bit of metal that is just the job in the long grass by the fence.

I did not want to say anything as I thought my thoughts were maybe just a bit too odd on this one.

Let us not forget also the small of fresh cut wood and varnish in the shed mixed in with pungent oils and bitumen only found in boat places.
 
Nothing odd about your thoughts on this one, I suppose I am old enough to remember real chandlers, without a single pre-packed plastic thingy in sight, those places always seemed to smell of tarred hemp, goodness knows why, went out of use donkeys years ago, except for some very classic and specialised boats.

Actually, I think I mean Stockholm tar? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Well! here's my ten peneth. Two years ago I decided to balance a plank of wood across a couple of beer barrels. They are in abundance, left lying around the yard and used for chocking up boats. I decided to use them to help me polish my topsides, laziness prevented me from moving the said *scaffold* as I reached the bow, so I decided to overstretch myself. The result was the barrels tipping and me with a bust ankle. It was suggested by some that I may have grounds for a claim against the yard. I made a decision to bite my tongue rather than say anything.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Well! here's my ten peneth. Two years ago I decided to balance a plank of wood across a couple of beer barrels. They are in abundance, left lying around the yard and used for chocking up boats. I decided to use them to help me polish my topsides, laziness prevented me from moving the said *scaffold* as I reached the bow, so I decided to overstretch myself. The result was the barrels tipping and me with a bust ankle. It was suggested by some that I may have grounds for a claim against the yard. I made a decision to bite my tongue rather than say anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

I should think you perishing well did! Seeing as it was your fault!...........The yard didn't tell you to use the barrels and the plank in that way did they?

I really find it incredible that some pillock would tell you that you had grounds to claim against the yard.....As I said earlier, it's the way of people these days it seems, I'd string them all up from the nearest yardarm and tell them to claim against that! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
It was more than one pillock.
Anyway, I got £7000 in compensation so not bad advice.






































Just trying to raise your blood pressure /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
To old to rise to that kind of thing me old mate, You already blew it by saying that you decided to keep shtum /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thing is, from what I see on here, seems like a lot of people think that sort of thing is perfectly ok, a bit sad isn't it? Oh yes, I and some of the others that have expressed their views on this thread, have old fashioned values, that is almost certain, but I wonder if we are all that wrong for having them? At least I am comfortable in my skin. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top