I am fuming at Jet Ski's ....

[Guest]

I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

Sunday July 13 ..... just east of Cowes, handing the main on deck with my lass ..... boat on autohelm. Bunch of Jet Skis come out at full chat from Cowes and cut across the bow. That I can live with given their speed etc.
One, two-up, decided to cut back and he side-swiped my boat on stbd side, causing a deluge of water into cockpit, into cabin and all over both of us. Given the job we were doing up on deck etc., it could have easily caused a disaster / MOB. All you could hear was their laughing ... as they sped away. I called CG and hope that they were caught - but have heard nothing.
It is interesting that others were reporting position / incidents with same Jet Skis after mine ......

WHEN will laws / reg's be issued to curb these lunatics ???? I am all for enjoying the water and having fun ..... this was something else and my lass - Russian visitor to UK - cannot believe it happened in our 'civilsied' land .... Well we all have our idiot fraternity ...... seems Jet Ski's attract them

So let's hear of anyone else has story's to tell ..... then maybe we can press for something to be done ??????

Any ideas apart from hand grenades / machine gunning 'em ????





<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I only came - cos they said there was FREE Guinness !

 

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

When I had Top Cat at Porthmadog I had a mooring on a bend in the river. We were just slipping mooring when a yacht on her way in decided to cut corner and head straight over towards us, I had just dropped the strops. I do not blame the yacht here, I just don't think he recognised what I was doing.

No problem I thought, I will leave engines gently ticking over ahead to keep us still in the current until said yacht has passed and out of the way. At this moment 2 jet skis arrived doing maybe 12-15 knots heading straight at our bows until at last moment red arrows style breaking and going around me. Their wake lifted Top Cat and we dropped right over my pick-up line which decided to take about 18 turns nice and tight around the prop shaft.

So now I am left moored by my port prop in a 2 kt current, with the other engine we managed to move forward sufficiently to pick up one of my aft strops, but we were at 90 degrees to the river. The next thing we needed to do was to get the bow pulled in, remember we are still fixed by the port prop. I went to the forward mooring bouy by dinghy and attached a new strop with sufficient length back to our bows.

There was no panic, we were not going anywhere, so I had time to make decisions and try different things, I suppose to an onlooker it may have looked like we were having real problems, but it was just us trying different things. turning a catamaran by hand against current and wind is no mean feat.

So now, I am leaning back with my feet under the guard rail pulling for all I am worth while crew tries to get forward momentum on the starboard engine, we were making very slow and difficult progress. Next thing another jet ski arrives at about 30kts and does a stop turn right underneath where I am standing, if I had not let go of the strop I would have gone over the side with it, as I was I was thrown across the foredeck.

Along the side of this jetski was written 'HARBOURMASTER', I told him very unpolitely to go away and not come back, I was very close to reporting him, but he said that he was told a boat was having an emergency in the river, hardly, my VHF was on, no-one called to see what was up, like I said there was no rush, I was not causing a danger to shipping.

I hate jetski's, I hate being a moving waypoint, I have many more stories, but this one now makes me smile, if you cannot trust the harbourmaster, how can we expect others to be more responsible.

rant over......

<hr width=100% size=1>Julian

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.topcatsail.co.uk/Honda_00.html>Honda Formula 4-Stroke racing</A>

 

[Dominic]

Neck Lines

Tried this in the anchorage at Wrightsville Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina.

Stretch light line between the anchored yachts at about neck height to a jet skier.

Since US law forbids zooming past an anchored yacht at close quarters, and since both yachts concerned had a black ball we won.

We failed on claiming salvage rights to the (recently) abandoned jet ski.



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[ccscott49]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

Officious buggers, sorry beaurocrats on Jet skis? I begin to get worried I really do!!

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[ccscott49]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

Officious buggers, sorry beaurocrats on Jet skis? I begin to get worried I really do!!
Next it'll be tax inspectors!! and god forbid traffic wardens, the mind boggles!

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[Robin]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

Poole police and Poole Harbourmaster both have them. They now ride shotgun on the fast ferries to keep the jetski gangs away from chasing the wash or trying to go between the hulls of these monster cats.

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[ccscott49]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

Do they arrest the little darlings? or just give them a warning? Do they confiscate the machines? It's a pity if they don't! Somebody in an anchorage is going to get so pissed off one day they'll go to the slip and slash the tyres of any car with a jetski trailer or the trailer itself, now theres an ILLEGAL idea, behave yourselves!!

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[Robin]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

Well yes HE probably has a departmental one too!

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[Col]

Re: Neck Lines

I hope you are joking because this is the most stupid idea I have ever heard. I cannot condone yobbish behaviour on jet skis. Equally I can't condone attempted murder.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>

 

[Twister_Ken]

I\'ll equipped HMs..

I think if I was possibly in trouble, I'd prefer the HM to arrive in something that had the grunt to tow me out of it. Like a nice launch with a diesel engine, big prop, 6" square towing post, loadsofenders and a max speed of 6 kts.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.writeforweb.com/twister1>Let's Twist Again</A>

 

[charles_reed]

Don\'t worry

It only decapitates them if they're going too fast - otherwise they just get knocked off the PWC.

You see.. in the immortal words of PoohBah "the punishment fits the crime".

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[Robin]

Emptyheads anyway

Or Dickheads, at least then the species might die out...

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[rusty_nail]

Re: I am fuming at Jet Ski\'s ....

This won't help your campaign to do something about them, but it is another story of recklessness to boil your blood.

I was hit full in the face by one of the said Japanese aquatic vehicles five years ago while drifting in a laser on a windless day. The bu$$er broke every bone in my face and left me with metal plates across both temples, and all he could say was: "I could have been hurt there."

all the best
Russell

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[Sybarite]

Re: Neck Lines

Does the name "Tony Martin" ring a bell somewhere ??

John

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[Evadne]

Re: Jet Ski\'s in Cowes

I presume they are the same lot I was reading about in the Island News (they post the front page on the wall in the Gents at the Folly): "30 jet-skiers from the mainland cause havoc in Cowes harbour" was the headline I think. It's hard to see how even a police launch could have caught them all, at least not without some suitable armament on the foredeck.
It strikes me that the main problem is identifying the buggers. If the new legislation was for each craft to have a registration number clearly visible then you could report them to the cops, and as has been said the laws already exist for dealing with them. That sort of legislation is a lot more palatable and easier to enforce than compulsory testing, IMHO. Of course, this could be extended to deal with errant yotties as well, but that would just be be sauce for the gander, so we couldn't complain, really.



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[Sybarite]

Re: Jet Ski\'s in Cowes

I quite like the French idea of requiring a license for any boat over 10hp when sail is not the principal means of propulsion. We have our lot of PWC's over here but, with the threat of losing a license the excesses are perhaps more limited. There is however the noise pollution and for me - living in the Paris area - this is one of my main motivations - to get away from perpetual noise.

John

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[Col]

Re: Don\'t worry

Blimey Charles. Even murderers and serial killers don't get beheaded! I know these PWC's are a real pain when used by some of these morons, but whatever next?
Are you going to hang sailors motoring with no cone up? Clap a stinkie in irons, 'cause he raised a bit of a wash? Give all the dinghy racers in Chichester 100 lashes?

If you are serious about this sort of "vigilante" law, then that is a sad day for boaters everywhere. I hope you could live with your self after taking a young life ( as they are mainly young)
I for one would not want to be associated with anyone who advocates this sort of "punishment"

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>

 

[Guest]

any chance getting them to Solent ?

it may not be such a bad idea to have a few officials on them - if only to catch the sods !!!!!!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Nigel ...
Bilge Keelers get up further ! I only came - cos they said there was FREE Guinness !

 

[Robin]

Re: any chance getting them to Solent ?

Either we need 10 times as many in Poole or they are not that effective since we still have huge problems with these morons

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[Robin]

Re: Don\'t worry

They aren't that young, these things are expensive and need more than paper round money. Mostly round Poole they are playthings for 30 something posers, the monied equivalent perhaps of the boy racer in a hot hatch, classic sign of inadequacy somewhere below the waist. Looking at the s/h prices in the local rag you could buy a decent little yacht for what they pay for them, or even a small cabin mobo.

The point here is not calling in the hanging judge, it is that 98% of the boating fraternity would like to see these things banned totally, but in these PC days minorities rule OK and we cannot stop 2% spoiling things for 98%.



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