Fairway patrol

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Spuddy

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We were coming down the Swin from Brightlingsea on Friday and were approached by a police RIB. All very courteous unlike some reports from the South Coast I recall. Asked permission to come aboard and checked owner's ID. I suppose it's to do with imminent Jubilee and Olympics. Anyone else had an encounter? They were based at Burnham.
 
Spuddy said:
We were coming down the Swin from Brightlingsea on Friday and were approached by a police RIB. All very courteous unlike some reports from the South Coast I recall. Asked permission to come aboard and checked owner's ID. I suppose it's to do with imminent Jubilee and Olympics. Anyone else had an encounter? They were based at Burnham.
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Yep thats the ones.. They (and Kent) are very much involved in the Jubilee / Olympic patrol of the Thames. They're probably getting into practice. (I have a sneaky feeling they quite enjoy their jobs :) )
 
The police launch Alert was on the Blackwater on Sunday and slowed down as it approached as from astern and hovered there for a bit before roaring off and leaving us with its wake. We felt we were being checked out. A friendly wave provoked no response.
 
We were checked out by them on the Crouch a couple of months ago. They hovered just off our quarter and asked a few questions, but confessed that they'd come over for a chat because no one else was out, and they were bored. Perhaps they'll be a bit less relaxed as more boats are on the water!
 
I was checked out three times in one day :eek: on the Medway in 2010 (I think it was then). It was when there were protests about the powerstation and there were a lot of squiffy little boats out and about with protestors dressed as pirates. They were very polite but seemed to have trouble recognising that they'd spoken to us in the previous couple of hours... :D
 
They were lurking around the Blackwater on Saturday morning. We spotted the rib hanging off one of our moorings....we were going to go and charge them al la WMYC but decided we were too Gentlemanly to do such a thing.
(or maybe too sensible? :) )
 
Last year we with with a group of parents and kids in dinghies on the Crouch. Not doing any organised stuff, just messing, which involved quite a bit of falling in the water.
The Police rib came roaring through the moorings right up to the kids swimming. When we protested, they said that they had reports of people in trouble because a yacht had capsized [true, many times].
It was intimidating having a 300HP rib and several black clad Ninjas circling you. They took some convincing that we weren't up to no good and seemed intent on rescuing somebody, anybody. I had the impression that they disapproved of us for playing.
I guess they can't win, when we want a copper we expect them to be there instantly but at other times we want them out of sight.
 
DanTribe said:
I guess they can't win, when we want a copper we expect them to be there instantly but at other times we want them out of sight.
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Maybe, but they are trained (and it's their job) to assess a situation and deal with appropriately. I do think their quest to 'be needed' can overshadow this.

Let's hope they keep a degree of moderation when the Jubilee / Olympics are on.
 
A few years ago the Met Police carried out a similar exercise. They boarded every boat coming down river and carried out a cursory search and checked the ID's of everyone aboard. I was handed a normal stop and search form and was told that they were building a database of boats using the tideway.
We were only ever boarded once and thereafter received a wave so the boats name must have shown up on the database
 
bulto said:
A few years ago the Met Police carried out a similar exercise. They boarded every boat coming down river and carried out a cursory search and checked the ID's of everyone aboard. I was handed a normal stop and search form and was told that they were building a database of boats using the tideway.
We were only ever boarded once and thereafter received a wave so the boats name must have shown up on the database
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Interesting. We had the police rib lurking 20 metres off our starboard quarter on the Crouch last Saturday. I suspect they were waiting to get past the 8 mph buoy before they accelerated away, but they were definitely scoping us out. If they had come over, I certainly wouldn't have been able to produce ID and wouldn't have been particularly keen on doing so anyway simply on point of principle. I wonder what happens if you refuse.
 
Supine Being said:
If they had come over, I certainly wouldn't have been able to produce ID and wouldn't have been particularly keen on doing so anyway simply on point of principle. I wonder what happens if you refuse.
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I'm not sure what would happen if you refuse, but I do wonder why you would refuse? I honestly don't understand the 'point of principle' thing. I would much rather have our shores policed properly to act as a deterrent or net to prevent as much illegal activity as possible.

Subject to the officers being polite and considerate of my crew and property then I have no problem being asked to identify myself.
 
Sea_Spray said:
I'm not sure what would happen if you refuse, but I do wonder why you would refuse? I honestly don't understand the 'point of principle' thing. I would much rather have our shores policed properly to act as a deterrent or net to prevent as much illegal activity as possible.

Subject to the officers being polite and considerate of my crew and property then I have no problem being asked to identify myself.
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There are times when it is perfectly reasonable for a police officer to stop and search I think - when there is a significant security risk or risk of public discorder, when individuals are behaving suspiciously, or if I was travelling back in to UK waters. But I do not expect to be stopped when going about my business in a peaceful manner unless they have good cause. Thankfully we have managed to resist ID cards in this country, but there is IMHO too much surveillance and it's only going in one direction. I don't much care for that or trust the reasons for diminishing our privacy. Again, just my opinion. Which boils down to me not being too keen on the idea of being questions when innocently messing about in boats.

A moot point anyway as all they would need to do is look up my SSR number.

Phew, bit heavy for the ECMF eh? :)
 
The interesting thing about this is that I don't necessarily have ID on me on board the boat (the only thing I've got is my driving licence anyway, don't have a passport, and that I tend to leave at home in safety when heading down to the boat)

Jane has no ID at all, she's never needed any (she doesn't drive and also doesn't have a passport)

So where would we stand if accosted by the boys in black whilst out for a jolly sail on the river this summer I wonder?

After all, there's no law (yet) that says we have to carry ID is there?

It does occur to me that maybe with it being Olympics year I'd best risk it getting ruined or lost and carry my driving licence with me on board
 
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