Did anyone hear .....

Lizzie_B

Lizzie_B

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..the whole conversation between that nice young lady from Solent CG and a racing yacht on Saturday.

From what I could gather said yacht had called SCG to complain that someone had failed to get out of their way when racing.

We heard SCG patiently explaining to them that just because they were racing it didn't give them right of way over a vessel constrained by its draught /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
A pal of mine is (one of) the nice young ladies (Coastguard watch officers) at Lee on Solent - I have sent on your note to her for comment........
And remember that these experienced and qualified watch officers are having to cope with morons like this racing yacht crew on a daily basis, all while earning what would be peanuts to most folk on this forum.
 
It often seems to be the way that those involved in providing potentially life and death services to the population are paid ridiculously low wages compared to some other sectors of employment.

Not only do they have to deal with morons on the water, but with the morons that set their pay as well.

The young lady who was on saturday has made reading the weather forecast an art form. We always stop and listen to her when she comes up. Shame you don't announce your names before reading it like they do on the BBC /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif I wonder how much they get paid /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
Now look here you Solent public employee:
-I am not interested in how much you are paid nor what hours you work...nor where your radio call centre thingy is or how busy you are with other calls .

The fact is that I and my chums work bloody hard all week to buy and maintain a first class racing machine with my super crew and it is of the utmost importance to me that I be allowed every opportunity to race very very competitiively. How dare any draft dragging floating muppet spoil my chances of the Pimms Mug of the Year? I am very angry. Dont you realise,radio operator, that it is part of your job to enforce this right of mine,that is why I pay taxes and why I am calling you up right now on an open radio frequency and demanding immediate action . Do you understand ? Yours out ,the class one yacht 'Egofar'
 
Re: Yes

I heard the same Saturday afternoon, could not quite believe the conversation and thought it was going to turn into a Solent Coastguard classic but then a diver emergency took priority. The underpaid junior staff in the coastguard service should record the more juicy bits and market the compilation as a comedy programme for BBC Radio 4, think I have the title "Channel 16 - you wouldn’t believe it".
 
They now want warnings on alcohol.

So take the idea and make it compulsory that all race organizers add a banner to all their application forms that states clearly colregs is mandatory with non race boats.

[ QUOTE ]
Government warning: Any additional rule agreed for this race does not alter your requirements under Colregs. Racing has no priority.


[/ QUOTE ]

Or race organizer could just show a little appreciation of the problem and volunteer to print it.
 
Not this old chestnut again....!

It is expressly stated in the racing rules of sailing, as the first paragraph of part 2 (where boats meet) that the rrs only apply to boats within the vicinity of the race course who are racing, are about to race or have just raced and that the colregs apply in all other situations.

Have a look for yourself

Any yacht not obeying this can be protested by the race comittee, so if you're agrieved give them a call on the VHF.
 
We heard some right crackers on saturday, but sadly I think that the 'nice young lady' was going way over the top. She insisted on classing every call as a Mayday, even when it was quite clearly nothing of the sort in the eyes of the caller or the lifeboat. Pandering to statistics? Just being cautious? or was she mellodramatic?
 
Following my close encounter a couple of weekends back I have now had a reply from the relevant yacht club

please take this as an acknowledgement of your Email of 21st May 2007.
This matter will be investigated and considered by the sailing committee at their meeting of the 12th June 2007. They will contact you after their meeting to inform you of their conclusions and the action they propose.
Regards (name deleted) Vice Commodore Sailing (club deleted)

I await their response with interest!
 
Yes, I did and you can hardly expect all the crew to read that.

However I must point out the same document has the statement:

[ QUOTE ]

22.1 If reasonably possible, a boat not racing shall not interfere with a boat
that is racing.


[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe you should read it also, and think how a stupid person would interpret it.
 
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