First they came for the maintenance...

JumbleDuck said:
You are, of course, perfectly entitled to believe that, but I invite you to think how all of this looks to that section of society which thinks that everything with a bed and a mast is a "luxury" yacht.
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I think it looks like a sport which takes safety very seriously and which has one of the very best records of effective self regulation telling the Government not to waste public money in telling its enthusiasts what they already know, given that this is a time of austerity.
 
The vast majority of fatalities that I have seen in news items and personally relate to folk leaving the pub to get back on their boat, either in a marina or on a mooring. I don’t know any boaters who drink and sail excessively.
 
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Champagne Murphy said:
The vast majority of fatalities that I have seen in news items and personally relate to folk leaving the pub to get back on their boat, either in a marina or on a mooring. I don’t know any boaters who drink and sail excessively.
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Still a boating related fatality, isn't it?
 
Minn said:
I think it looks like a sport which takes safety very seriously and which has one of the very best records of effective self regulation telling the Government not to waste public money in telling its enthusiasts what they already know, given that this is a time of austerity.
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That would be a very good message to convey.
 
penberth3 said:
Still a boating related fatality, isn't it?
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Yes, and it's one that we all know about. Des Sleightholme was writing about it in the Yachting Monthly when I bought my first boat in 1970. It is not an issue that the MCA can do much about beyond aggressively prosecuting those who drink and boat which indeed they already so.
 
newtothis said:
...now they're coming for the whisky.

"Department for Transport campaign will warn about the risks of drinking afloat

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA), which is recognised as the representational voice for recreational boaters, and the British Ports Association (BPA), representing over 350 ports, harbours and piers around the UK’s coast, have joined forces to welcome a ministerial announcement of an alcohol awareness campaign.

At the start of Maritime Safety Week on the 1st July, Transport and Maritime Minister Nusrat Ghani MP announced that her Department would be undertaking a campaign to highlight the potential dangers of drinking and boating. The announcement was a key part of the Department for Transport’s Maritime Safety Action Plan which was launched in London this week.

The RYA and BPA are members of a newly formed Alcohol Awareness Steering Group which will work with the Government and other parts of the maritime sector to develop the campaign aimed at recreational boat users. The campaign aims to improve safety on the water by highlighting the dangers of drinking and boating."
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As a Muslim i assume she is against alcohol to start with. How will this be policed, Harbour Masters already have the required powers given by Prescott after the Bow Belle incident
 
For sailing craft, the issue is entirely a matter of personal safety rather than third party risk, so it is an education campaign that is needed rather than legislation, in contrast with the roads or flying. Sailors have become more conscious of the lifejacket issue in recent years, but what influence the RNLI campaign might have had I don't know. There is, I think I read, a department somewhere that is concerned with developing ways of influencing behaviour in a genuine way rather than the kind of futile gestures that we have seen in the past, such as 'Keep Britain tidy'. The way to do this is often far from obvious and many campaigns are simply met by a 'nanny state' resistance. People have to some extent been shamed into not smoking or drink-driving, so that it is going to be attitudes that will have to be influenced if the relatively few boating drownings are to be reduced.
 
johnalison said:
For sailing craft, the issue is entirely a matter of personal safety rather than third party risk, so it is an education campaign that is needed rather than legislation, in contrast with the roads or flying. Sailors have become more conscious of the lifejacket issue in recent years, but what influence the RNLI campaign might have had I don't know. There is, I think I read, a department somewhere that is concerned with developing ways of influencing behaviour in a genuine way rather than the kind of futile gestures that we have seen in the past, such as 'Keep Britain tidy'. The way to do this is often far from obvious and many campaigns are simply met by a 'nanny state' resistance. People have to some extent been shamed into not smoking or drink-driving, so that it is going to be attitudes that will have to be influenced if the relatively few boating drownings are to be reduced.
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Very good points.

You are thinking of the Behavioural Insights Team I believe:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/behavioural-insights-team
 
Champagne Murphy said:
The vast majority of fatalities that I have seen in news items and personally relate to folk leaving the pub to get back on their boat, either in a marina or on a mooring. I don’t know any boaters who drink and sail excessively.
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Don't know anyone who has had an accident whilst sailing drunk but, I personally know two who drowned returning to their boats, one on a mooring and one in a marina. I also have at least 6 friends who have fallen in drunk from tenders but survived thanks to warm water and others nearby.
 
Graham376 said:
Don't know anyone who has had an accident whilst sailing drunk but, I personally know two who drowned returning to their boats, one on a mooring and one in a marina. I also have at least 6 friends who have fallen in drunk from tenders but survived thanks to warm water and others nearby.
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Being your friend appears to be a high-risk activity so, if you don't mind, I'll keep my distance.
 
For a start avoid ports that try to inforce it. I enjoy drinking but feel more scared by the mobos / jet skis going at high speed through an anchorage. Luckily they aren't many doing the high speed.
 
To pose an entirely contrary point of view (Who Moi?);

Despite the best efforts of your Physician, Nurse, MP, Wife, and HSE advisor et al - You are going to die. It is simply a question of when and how, not if.

Whilst at anchor (properly, securely, no risk to others etc.) mildly inebriated, melow, listening to my favourite music - would be fine by me.

Anybody wishing to lecture me needs to provide a better offer - I'm all ears.

???
 
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Sandy Bottom said:
To pose an entirely contrary point of view (Who Moi?);

Despite the best efforts of your Physician, Nurse, MP, Wife, and HSE advisor et al - You are going to die. It is simply a question of when and how, not if.

Whilst at anchor (properly, securely, no risk to others etc.) mildly inebriated, melow, listening to my favourite music - would be fine by me.

Anybody wishing to lecture me needs to provide a better offer - I'm all ears.

???
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I hope you enjoy your not fully ebriated evening and I wish I could join you, but accidental deaths do represent a matter of real public health concern. In many of these cases it can be ineffective to home in on the most severely affected, ie the mst drunk. Thus, if the whole population of sailors can be persuaded to drink a bit less generally, then the number of alcohol-related deaths might diminish. There is a similar situation with circulation problems associated with hypertension; it has been found better to reduce a population's salt intake than to attempt to home in on those who might actually be affected.
 
Old Harry said:
As a Muslim i assume she is against alcohol to start with.
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The argument against drinking at anchor always seems to imagine a situation where you have to move unexpectedly - change of wind, or whatever. I've no doubt these things do happen, but I've never had to in fifteen years of anchoring regularly. How common are these situations in UK waters?

I'm not talking about when sitting out a well-forecast gale or the idiot who comes in and dumps out their anchor and a bit of chain, so you already know you need to keep an eye on them, but a situation where you're set up in a safe anchorage with the anchor properly dug in and you feel secure, then it all goes horribly wrong.

My fear with this is that someone will decide "Something Must Be Done" and we'll end up with a law that criminalises the wrong people, while doing nothing to deter the real targets, a bit like the knife legislation which made a criminal of the yottie who forgot to take his knife out of his pocket or his multitool off his belt while adding nothing to the ability of Plod to deal with knife crime, which was already covered by offensive weapons legislation
 
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