Henley festival - let the chaos begin!

Thanks for the update Ross. Did you end up back in the same spot after moving off? Shame about the small boats not being able to tie up by the stage. Will see what happens Wednesday evening, was told there will be 5 EA patrol boats on each night, let's hope they relax the 2 boat rule just while the music is on at the floating stage.
 
Yup, exactly the same spot!! Just had to spend an extra half an hour clogging up the channel before going back on to the same boom! I know there are rules, but common sense should have dictated that one less boat in the melee is one less risk. I don't envy the EA though - damned if they do, damned if they don't...

Still, we've had a fun Monday.. One run in with a serious tw@t double scull resulting in video and a call to Henley rowing club, and a kn0b in a sports cruiser trying to moor alongside me claiming he had a right to as that was 'what happens here'. Er, sorry, no. My boat, my discretion (we're saving the spot for someone on weds...)

Bring on Tuesday!!!
 
Does nobody have the ear of somebody organising this event.?
It may only take a telephone conversation to make them aware of the growing numbers of folks wanting to be there in their boats and to sort something,perhaps even allocating the job to a boat club or one of those complaining most loudly about the chaos.
RCC hosts a weekend do where a cruise is followed by a free bar and buffet. It got totally out of hand. At one point the streets of the Medway Towns must have been deserted as word spread and many boaters on the river plus all their mates were turning up.
It came to a head when a certain rear commodore returning from the cruise (at the back) was unable to get into the clubhouse due to folks who had not even taken part in the event,arriving while the cruise was underway and taking up all the spaces at the tables.
The free bar was culled and tickets issued only to those actually taking part in the cruise.
Perhaps somebody needs to get a grip up there. ? :)
 
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My take on this - others may have a different view !
Does nobody have the ear of somebody organising this event.?
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i believe there was considerable discussion between all parties - EA, HRR, Henley Festival (and possibly RUG6) )which resulted in the process which is now in place. I have no doubt that this years experience will lead to further consideration for next year.
Why should the boat clubs be involved? Henley Festival is a commercial event which happens to take place on the river and which some people choose to visit by boat. Over the years a custom and practice has arisen which permitted boats to moor FOC on the piles/booms which were installed for HRR. This year, those responsible decided they were no longer happy for that to continue and endeavoured to discontinue the practice. What is now happening was the outcome of the discussions. The EA, other than ensuring by-laws are observed, have only advisory authority - it is for those organising the event and/or providing the mooring facilities to decide what they will provide and on what terms.
i am bound to compare this with the Rewind event later in the year where there are no midstream mooring facilities and many boats anchor with the apparent approval of the EA.
 
Further thoughts.......
How much of this issue is down to willingness to pay? The EA are now desperately short of funding needed to manage and maintain the river yet, apart from licence fees for the temporary piles/booms receive absolutely no income from the various activities at Henley - indeed their enhanced presence actually results in a net cost to the Agency of well over £10k.
if the EA were to take over the financial costs of retaining the piles/booms for the period of the festival, would boaters be prepared to pay realistic mooring fees to both cover that cost and contribute income for the benefit of the river?
 
I would be more than happy to book/pay. I stated as such this time last year when the first mutterings of HRR removing the booms early were made. The event is fantastic, and I don't expect to get a weeks moorings on someone else's booms for free - I would still attend if I had to pay. I asked the question on this forum and it seemed others were willing to pay a sensible fee. Henley town council will charge you £40 per night to moor in town with no view of the event...

Seems someone is missing a trick, or is it simply too complex to organise? Would HRR then be obliged to hold insurance and demonstrate the soundness of the piles? I don't know.
 
Ive also done the pukka festival mooring at £200 per night, that isn't worth it, and I wouldn't pay that for the night! Maybe for an allocated spot on the booms for a week though...
 
boatone said:
Anyone care to hazard a guess as to how many boats could be accommodated on the booms ?
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Over the whole length - 100 plus, but that's probably not what you mean.
If you moor as little than (say) 50m behind the stage, all you hear is cacophony because there are other bands doing their thing all along that stretch.
If you want the fireworks - assuming they were on the town side - then everyone gets a view, right the way back to temple island - and I bet there spaces free from UTRC downstream.

I'm hoping that there will be more room to enjoy the "TTBR" in a more convivial atmosphere....
 
Well the first night was not quite as bad as predicted, however I felt the traffic levels overall were lower so perhaps this helped.

As we thought, the "rules" evolved during the night. It started off as predicted with the EA strictly enforcing the no more that two boats rule. Being a smaller boat we had not grabbed a space on the booms early in the week. Instead we slotted in at 90degrees behind some friends boats. The EA were happy with this provided our front ropes went to the boom, meaning we were "1 deep" as we were, in their view, moored to the boom. The concern they had was that our rear end should not stick out.

As the crowds built they started to enforce this new rule that they made up more, ie. boats should not stick out more that a line of two abreast large boats. As you can see there was a large gap next to us where a Regatta marshalls stand was. At first they moved boats on from this area, later they permitted boats into it and then made sure that they did not extend outside of an imaginary "two deep" line, meaning the small boats could raft up 3 or more deep.

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Here you can see the "permitted" gathering of smaller boats next to us after they decided to let them moor there.

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The flow past the stage was kept moving quite well by the EA. However perhaps they should have had a boat stationed at the "entrance" to the channel to ensure large boats entered one at a time as some large Hobbs pleasure boats jammed the flow when more than one was allowed down.

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For anyone looking at mooring up to this stand, it was not permitted early in the evening but then small boats were directed there later.
 
Oh, and the only near miss we had was with a speeding EA patrol boat.

We were dawdling in the tail of the queue for Marsh Lock around 11pm with an EA patrol boat on our starboard quarter who was stationary and pointing downstream. Suddenly he turn on his blue flashing lights and his powerful front spotlight and roared off at full pelt. However he had to move across our bows to get to the "correct" side of the river. Because he had turned on his spotlight in order to move at speed, he completely wiped out our vision. we could just see this light heading at speed with no clear indication of which side he wanted to pass us or even his actual direction as the green/red lights were not visible in the glare. We maintained course and speed and he missed our bows as he crossed at speed by less than a metre in the dark.

Whilst I appreciate that he has to use his light to move at speed, he clearly did not understand that we instantly could see nothing at all, like a rabbit in the headlights and could not see or judge his movement, speed or direction. (I assume there was some urgent incident downstream)
 
Got a bit messy down our end mlines, but I think this was more alcohol induced poor skippering. Saw one three boat pile up (one boat suddenly stopped to watch the big screen, and was immediately rear ended by two other boats - that's why you have to keep moving!!) one boat lost control at near zero speed and broadsided a nice wooden trad launch. The big Hobbs boat (can't remember which one) was forced into neutral by the slow circulation speed and found itself drifting sideways. Lots of shouting from skipper and crew warning everyone around them to keep out the way as they had no directional control. Didn't hit anything though, thanks mainly to the crews warnings. One numpty tried to drive over a boom at about 12:30 to get out of the shoreside enclosure - he failed :)

Chill of this parish had a minor side swipe from a well known mooring operator up here - luckily no marks were left (I think a fender just got caught at the right place)
 
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