I have to get this off my chest

[Bergman]

Re: BG servicing

"Remember that these laws are passed to protect individuals from their own stupidity?"

Maybe thats why they were passed.

But what they are used for is to separate the individual from his own cash

 

[Bergman]

Re: ReService Engineers duty of care.

Works both ways

I was once told by a misbegotten little oik that I wasn't competent to connect a 13 amp plug.

Since I hold a degree in electrical engineering I was quite annoyed.

In fact I was so annoyed a colleague had to grab hold of me to to stop me hitting the prat.

His qualification - a half day "course" in plug fitting

His job - going round unscrewing the backs of plugs, screwing them back on and attaching a sticky label saying he had "inspected" them.

On another occasion a "qualified" electrician working in a bank connected power to an ATM machine so that the body of the machine was connected to the live wire.

That cost the bank several thousands in a safety insection from a professional chartered engineer cos I threatened to refuse to send any maintenance people to work on their machines until this had been carried out.

So don't overdo the holier than thou bit it doesnt really work on me.

 

[jimi]

Re: ReService Engineers duty of care.

Laws and regulations are there for our protection, but unfortunately they are abused both through ignorance and systematically for profit.

IMHO the two issues here are illustrated by :

1) the lack of technical knowledge by petty minded little SS types. eg recently I was at a climbing centre and told my wife was belaying wrongly and subjected to a 5 minute tirade by a spotty 17 yo who had obviously just finished his mountain leadership course, I listened meekly and continued to do what I've learned through over 30yrs of climbing experience at a reasonably high standard.

2) Rip off merchants. Where the use of regulations etc is seen as a means of making a fast buck from the technically insecure. eg Guy at the boat yard put his car into the local garage for a MOT, failed and was told it was cos the steering mechanism was worn ...£900 to replace. He had a mechanic friend look at it and was assured it was perfectly OK. Took it to another MOT centre, told them the issue and that if it was faulty he wanted to know. Car was inspected and passed. Upon asking around, the first garage has a "reputation"

 

[BSSOffice]

Re: I have to get this off my chest so do I

[ QUOTE ]
Benchhead -
Although I have many horror stories I will recount just 2. On the Norfolk Broads a party of teenage lads hired a boat. Although It was summer it was cold so when they turned in for the night to supplement the heating they lit all the cooker rings and sealed themselves in, they never woke up. This led to legislation.
…………………..

[/ QUOTE ]

Hi
A sad story indeed, but it is an incident we do not have any details of. Can you offer us any other pointers - approx date, place etc. We have a reasonable database of incidents, for example; there have been six carbon monoxide related fatalities on boats on inland UK waters in the past two years. One relating to gas use, two to use of solid fuel appliances, two to the use of internal combustions engines for charging electrical goods and one where there is an outstanding question mark. We did have at least two serious gas explosions last year. One related to the use of inappropriate hose and jubilee clips - resonances of your other story.

Can you email anything you can recall on the Broads incident to me at bss.enquiries@boatsafetyscheme.com - indeed any canal/river/lake boat related incident info relating to smouldering/fire/explosion/CO is very valuable.

Thanks

 

[LittleShip]

If you have a sealed system that needs topping up frequently, you have a problem on the system or boiler. This addition of new water into the system can in itself promote problems.

Tom
Ps that water you drink and bath in will kill fish??