Guernsey residents now allowed limited use of their boats

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trialframe

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Guernsey Harbours
A shortened version of the new rules -


· Changes to the current restrictions to enable recreational boating, subject to some controls - section A

SECTION A: Recreational Boating
Recreational boat owners (using any type of vessel, whether motorised or not) are now permitted to use their boats in local waters for recreational purposes subject to certain conditions

· Boat skippers may only be accompanied by persons permanently residing at the same address or, where the vessel is sufficiently large to maintain social distancing, with one other person from a different household.

· Boat owners are limited to a two-hour period of water based activities in every 24-hour period.
 
There's a challenge.

What to do in the 2 hours?

Local dinghy and yacht racing but no committee boat or faffing about with marks.

Bang-and-back motor boat races. With rules no one understands...

Water skiing

Rowing

All with the family, not your mates...
 
Two hours is a good length of time to go dinghy sailing.
Canoeing, windsurfing etc.
Or to catch a bit of supper.
 
Keith-i said:
We have a 4 hour timeframe in Jersey now.
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Per FlyingGoose's post #4...has there been any explanation for a rationale for the time limit? I can't for the life of me think of any difference in the risk to public health for being out all day vs 4 hours. Surely contagion risk is mostly A Thing travelling to and from the boat, touching the marina gates, passing people on the pontoons etc.
 
laika said:
Per FlyingGoose's post #4...has there been any explanation for a rationale for the time limit? I can't for the life of me think of any difference in the risk to public health for being out all day vs 4 hours. Surely contagion risk is mostly A Thing travelling to and from the boat, touching the marina gates, passing people on the pontoons etc.
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The two hour limit is the same as currently allowed for exercise. We went out earlier, just motored down to Fermain and back, but nice to be out on the water again.
 
PatrickB02 said:
The two hour limit is the same as currently allowed for exercise. We went out earlier, just motored down to Fermain and back, but nice to be out on the water again.
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Presumably the rationale with a limit on the duration of exercise is that the longer you're out in a public space, the more likely you are to come into contact with others. With boating you are necessarily isolated from others for the duration of the activity with potential contact happening only at the start and finish.
 
Civil servants and government , do we expect rational , common sense and practical theory , hmmmmm Nah :sleep:
I Understand some what that its is your 2 hour exercise, but has anyone really though this out,
Takes me 2 hours of huffing and puffing to get the sails up ?
 
laika said:
Presumably the rationale with a limit on the duration of exercise is that the longer you're out in a public space, the more likely you are to come into contact with others. With boating you are necessarily isolated from others for the duration of the activity with potential contact happening only at the start and finish.
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I think so. It's a popular pastime there to take a small power boat and have an afternoon on the beach. I guess the 2 hours scrubs that, plus the likely barbies, chats with old chums and the inevitable social bottle or two that it can entail.

.
 
laika said:
Per FlyingGoose's post #4...has there been any explanation for a rationale for the time limit? I can't for the life of me think of any difference in the risk to public health for being out all day vs 4 hours. Surely contagion risk is mostly A Thing travelling to and from the boat, touching the marina gates, passing people on the pontoons etc.
Click to expand...
I don’t know of any rationale behind it. The 2 hour rule wasn’t even stipulated in our law, it was just a government diktat that everyone seemed to follow. They’ve relaxed things to 4 hours as the local testing and tracking has indicated a fairly low rate of Covid cases in the community and as yet our hospital hasn’t broken 40% capacity.

I suppose they had to start somewhere and 2 hours was enough time for people to get out for a bit of exercise and shopping without risking too much unnecessary interaction.
 
Keith-i said:
I suppose they had to start somewhere and 2 hours was enough time for people to get out for a bit of exercise and shopping without risking too much unnecessary interaction
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Ah I get it now I think. Prompted by what I thought you might be saying I've just checked the Jersey lockdown rules (which I was not aware of the details of) and see that *existing* rules limit the time you are allowed out of the house so presumably the boating allowance represents a change of guidance as to what you may do within those existing limits, which makes a lot more sense than an arbitrary limit just on boating (which from the original post I mistakenly thought it was).

Mystery solved: Just my ignorance of the existing Jersey rules.
 
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laika said:
I've just checked the Jersey lockdown rules
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It's been a bit of a fudge up until now. When our lockdown began at the end of March the law didn't actually give you any right to be out of your home other than if you were a police officer or couldn't work from home. It certainly didn't mention any 2m social distancing measure either. However, the public statements and anouncements rather glossed over such triviality and made certain advisory rules which technically weren't correct or enforceable, but as the majority of Joe Public didn't bother to find and read the law they just went with the flow and most people behaved for the month. This was either sophistry or lack of competence; I'm favouring the latter. Now that they have changed to a 4 hour sortie they have properly amended the law and it is now much more precise.

As an interesting footnote, I was on a construction site recently where the 2 permitted site workers were stopped by police because they were carrying shuttering boards between them that only measured 1.8m across! Had they had any sense they would have continued to load them onto their flatbed by holding opposite corners but I think the shock of being stopped rather surprised them.
 
If I could get to my boat it would be a positive step and if I only had two hours pure bliss.
Need a bit of common sense but then again look at the muppets in the supermarkets .Social distancing my arse.
 
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