Essex Marina – Excessive Wash

There are inconsiderate people everywhere, as well as decent people. I was out for a potter on the Orwell today on a friends mobo and am pleased to say we were traveling at a sensible speed and making no wash. I'm also pleased to say that pretty much every other skipper we saw put his hand up as we passed each other, most of them sail boats. This was the polite behavior i remember from using my own mobos in this area. I was less than pleased when some dick in another mobo came up the river at 8/9 knots, with a large wash, passing some small yachts at close quarters before going into Wolverstone marina.
 
Replying to CLB, I was not suggesting that mobos are fined for speeding outside the 8 knot limit, but the inconsiderate 'drivers' who roar past us outside the limit area when we are sailing not caring that their wash is actually a danger to sail boats are likely to be the ones who speed in the 8 knot area.

The post from PaulRainbow above demonstrates my point exactly. Some mobos just don't care about anyone else and they actually create hazards on the river. Its hard to think of a similar instance of inconsiderate behaviour from sail boats unless of course you count some of the racing fleets who think they have a right of way over ordinary mortals - that's inconsiderate. But its hard to think of sailing boats doing the same damage excess wash from mobos does to places like Bridgemarsh island. That's why I wish Watchful catches a few more of them.
 
Just as a matter of interest where do sail boats stand with regard to the 8knt speed limit? Last year during Burnham week they set us one course that took us up past the town and Essex Marina, fortunately it was the one day with really light winds otherwise without a doubt we would have been exceeding that limit quite a lot.......
 
Triassic said:
Just as a matter of interest where do sail boats stand with regard to the 8knt speed limit? Last year during Burnham week they set us one course that took us up past the town and Essex Marina, fortunately it was the one day with really light winds otherwise without a doubt we would have been exceeding that limit quite a lot.......
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Yachts have better designed hull that dont make a huge wash & 8 kts
 
I appreciate we don't make the wash, but in some people's eyes that doesn't necessarily exempt us the speed limit. One of the unfortunate consequences of pushing for enforcement of a particular rule in order to target just a few "offenders" is that you can snare a lot of others unintentionally.....
 
Triassic said:
I appreciate we don't make the wash, but in some people's eyes that doesn't necessarily exempt us the speed limit. One of the unfortunate consequences of pushing for enforcement of a particular rule in order to target just a few "offenders" is that you can snare a lot of others unintentionally.....
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I think the authorities might discreetly look the other way for a few moments...
 
pvb said:
I think the authorities might discreetly look the other way for a few moments...
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I'm sure you're spot on, and long may common sense such as that prevail, however in these day of litigation and jobsworth I wonder just how long it will be before that changes. Imagine the scenario if some private company is contracted to enforce the bylaws in order to address perhaps a jet ski or wash issue, and they realise there is a whole lot of money to be made around other breaches that otherwise go unnoticed.......
 
sailorman said:
Yachts have better designed hull that dont make a huge wash & 8 kts
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Bollox !! That's the typical Yottie answer :mad-new:

Yachts have displacement hulls that usually don't make huge wash at 8 knots, plenty of mobos that have displacement hull and also don't make much wash at 8 knots.

Speed limits apply to all vessels. Wash restrictions also apply to all vessels, but will impose different speed limitations on different vessels.
 
on our recent trip up to Burnham we did meet a couple of large mobos very obviously out of the EBY marina who were going quite fast and creating a lot of wash. However they were well beyond the speed limit, well way from our inbound little fleet and we were prepared for the wash.
Everybody without exception appeared to be observing speed limits closer in
 
Burnham Bob said:
Replying to CLB, I was not suggesting that mobos are fined for speeding outside the 8 knot limit, but the inconsiderate 'drivers' who roar past us outside the limit area when we are sailing not caring that their wash is actually a danger to sail boats are likely to be the ones who speed in the 8 knot area.{/QUOTE]

Sure there are inconsiderate people out there, but I don't always think it's obvious how big your wash is, especially when your concentration is forward. We were coming up the Crouch once and met three large MoBos coming the other way in close formation, one behind the other, on the plane, as is their right in the Outer Crouch. I don't know if their wash somehow combined or if one of them was badly trimmed, but they produced a really steep wave. The thing was, it didn't look exceptional as it approached, but then I saw the Crouch north cardinal getting banged about something wicked and shouted below to Mrs Supine, who was in the galley making soup, to brace. The wash came right over the side deck of my Sadler 26 and pretty soon Mrs S was sponging soup from everywhere, including the ceiling. Could've been nasty. My point is that I'm not sure that it would've been obvious to the MoBos quite how steep their wash was. Whether they would've cared if it was if is open to discussion.
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Triassic said:
I'm sure you're spot on, and long may common sense such as that prevail, however in these day of litigation and jobsworth I wonder just how long it will be before that changes. Imagine the scenario if some private company is contracted to enforce the bylaws in order to address perhaps a jet ski or wash issue, and they realise there is a whole lot of money to be made around other breaches that otherwise go unnoticed.......
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Your tri should create little wash at any speed, but speed limits are speed limits. That's what a policeman will tell, but then you will have to pull out your old warrant card!
 
Concerto said:
Your tri should create little wash at any speed, but speed limits are speed limits. That's what a policeman will tell, but then you will have to pull out your old warrant card!
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Not much chance of that happening....! :) There was a day when common sense prevailed in policing, try telling that to a speed camera partnership these days........ which is why I raise the point. Be careful what you wish for around enforcement.
 
The speed limit only applies to power driven vessels:

From the CHA Byelaws.
Speed Limit
6. Within the areas described in the Schedule hereto and indicated on the attached maps, subject to byelaw 5 and to the requirements of maintaining adequate steerage way and control, no Master shall permit or cause any power driven vessel to be navigated at a speed exceeding eight knots through, on or over the water, provided that this byelaw shall not apply to any vessel on any occasion when it is being used for Harbour Authority, police, fire-fighting or rescue operations in circumstances where such speed limit would be likely to hinder the use of the vessel for the purpose for which it is being used on that occasion.
 
That's brilliant thanks. I wonder if the same wording is in the Medway bylaw, would be useful next time I get told off!


Edit: It doesn't. Just looked up the Medway Ports River Bylaws 1991, section 22 says "No person shall navigate a vessel", and sub section 3 (a) (b) and (c) lists the various limits at various locations.
 
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Also worth noting that as soon as you use the engine on a sail boat it becomes a power driven vessel, displaying the appropriate lights or shapes.

Not that i've ever seen a motoring cone used.
 
Triassic said:
That's brilliant thanks. I wonder if the same wording is in the Medway bylaw, would be useful next time I get told off!


Edit: It doesn't. Just looked up the Medway Ports River Bylaws 1991, section 22 says "No person shall navigate a vessel", and sub section 3 (a) (b) and (c) lists the various limits at various locations.
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Having listened to the chap from Peel Ports basically state there is no chance of them responding to any complaints in real time about speeding you are probably quite safe.
 
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