rosssavage
Well-Known Member
Seems HRR have made life quite hard for the EA this year.
Due to the new restrictions on the booms this year, most people had decided to come up yesterday rather than waiting to come up later in the week.
Utter bedlam! I would say from about 1530 something like 30 large cruisers started hanging around the prime boom spots, whilst a huge volume of regatta traffic tried to get through to leave. Unfortunately the EA were simply overwhelmed and pretty much lost control of the situation. Some of the big boats (guilty) moored onto the booms before HRR had released them simply to get out of the fairway (OK, I also got my preferred spot - bonus! But it was very windy and there were a huge number of boats trying to hold station in the narrow channel!!). Those who got on early were then asked to move off again, and join the stationary traffic in the river. We were all asked to keep circulating, but it just didn't happen due to the number of boats trying to delay moving to guarantee a good spot.
It now turns out that the small open boat "pen" by the bank just downstream of the floating stage will not be in use this year, so all the small boats and all the big boats (that can't use the booms because of the two boat rule) are going to be forced to circulate all night. Last two years the EA failed to keep boats circulating and a huge log jam of boats occurred by the stage and after show event area - I shudder to imagine what it will be like this year....
Of course none of this is really the EAs fault - they're just trying to implement the new rules dictated by HRR (and WDC?), but I think it's going to get messy.....
It's now 10:00 Monday morning, and the entire length of boom mooring from the start line to the end of the festival site is full, with most boats already double moored. No idea where the next 50+ boats that are still to arrive are going to go!!
Due to the new restrictions on the booms this year, most people had decided to come up yesterday rather than waiting to come up later in the week.
Utter bedlam! I would say from about 1530 something like 30 large cruisers started hanging around the prime boom spots, whilst a huge volume of regatta traffic tried to get through to leave. Unfortunately the EA were simply overwhelmed and pretty much lost control of the situation. Some of the big boats (guilty) moored onto the booms before HRR had released them simply to get out of the fairway (OK, I also got my preferred spot - bonus! But it was very windy and there were a huge number of boats trying to hold station in the narrow channel!!). Those who got on early were then asked to move off again, and join the stationary traffic in the river. We were all asked to keep circulating, but it just didn't happen due to the number of boats trying to delay moving to guarantee a good spot.
It now turns out that the small open boat "pen" by the bank just downstream of the floating stage will not be in use this year, so all the small boats and all the big boats (that can't use the booms because of the two boat rule) are going to be forced to circulate all night. Last two years the EA failed to keep boats circulating and a huge log jam of boats occurred by the stage and after show event area - I shudder to imagine what it will be like this year....
Of course none of this is really the EAs fault - they're just trying to implement the new rules dictated by HRR (and WDC?), but I think it's going to get messy.....
It's now 10:00 Monday morning, and the entire length of boom mooring from the start line to the end of the festival site is full, with most boats already double moored. No idea where the next 50+ boats that are still to arrive are going to go!!
