Nasty incident involving school rowers and their coach at Shiplake..

[boatone]

I'm not in favour of a compulsory ban, I don't like where that leads to (tighter licensing and control on boaters in general).

However, in the current climate of ambulance chasing lawyers and people suing people over all sorts of liability issues, I do wonder how a school / college could even contemplate allowing a staff member to take pupils out on a river when the navigation authority responsible for that river is advising that no unpowered craft should be out due to adverse conditions. Seems to me the coach is in a position of responsibility and would not have a leg to stand on if one of the parents decided to take matters further.

Agreed. Even if the EA were permitted to impose a ban some idiot would ignore it! People must take responsibility for their actions and, particularly, those charged with caretaker roles for others.

 

[CJL]

Normally I would agree.

I don't like the nanny state or the thought of a ban. BUT the consequences for these people on the boats, or those with a duty of care, doesn't seem to be impacting on their behaviour. Education is a key issue and something that the RYA have promoted successfully for some time now.

Rules of the road, boat handling etc do seem to be missing from a minority of rowers. Surely a risk assessment would absolutely prohibit taking youngsters afloat in marginal conditions - apparently not!

I wonder how many of us have no boating qualifications and no awareness of rules of the road/boat handing etc?

CJL

 

[boatone]

The right people to come down hard on the rowers is British Rowing. Clubs, schools etc are likely to pay more attention to the British national body than an EA by-law !

 

[Tintin]

I remember the same thing happening at Penton Hook some years back, 1972 I think.

The river was on red boards, Thames Conservancy days, a rowing 8 from Staines made their turn too close to the wier. The boat hit the piles in front of the wier and broke in two, all the occupants were thrown into the water and swept over the wier.

Unfortunately they all lost their lives, and IIRC, bodies were recovered at Sunbury. Very bad incident that made the national news at the time. Right outside our house.

I rowed and coxed at Staines Boat Club in the 80's.

if you went beyond the bends at Silvery Sands you got in a lot of trouble.

 

[Actionmat]

Its even more frightening when you consider the lack of life jackets.

 

[Ramage]

Normally coaches & coxes wear them, but the rowers & scullers rarely do.

 

[Actionmat]

That's what I was getting at, the ones with no safety gear on tend to be somebodys supervised kids.

 

[bumperdump]

Its even more frightening when you consider the lack of life jackets.

second that, the amount of small children I see throughout the summer on the thames, not wearing life jackets , is unreal.

 

[jaws]

Excelsior boats with kids in were out on Yellows in the Bray/Bovney reach this weekend. The coach boat was skippered by a kid too. When I challenged him on why they were out on Yellows he just replied "We are allowed to be out". They were all over the shop and the coach boat had the turning circle of an articulated lorry in those conditions. It took the full width of the river and several attempts for him to turn round.

 

[Richard Shead]

It would appear that everyone and their other was out yesterday (see what I did there) I stupidly went to Henley and Marlow for a bite to eat....ended up getting back in the car and grabbing something from Sainburys Twick Green..

My point being there were a lot of boats out yesterday and some sort of regatta at Henley.

 

[Ramage]

The river itself was fairly quiet... I guess there was a lot of cleaning & preparation going on in marinas and on moorings!

There were lots of canoes/kayaks out doing a long distance event (maybe training for The Devizes to Westminster?).

 

[Brayman]

The river itself was fairly quiet... I guess there was a lot of cleaning & preparation going on in marinas and on moorings!

There were lots of canoes/kayaks out doing a long distance event (maybe training for The Devizes to Westminster?).

Also was it not the ladies varsity boat race? The final year for it to be run at Henley, from next year they join the men at Putney.

 

[mlines]

We were on the river at Henley and there were virtually no pleasure craft out at all. Had Marsh Lock to ourselves as well as the upstream stretch of water (apart from canoes).

As for Henley itself, it was the Henley Boat Races (http://henleyboatraces.com/) between Oxford and Cambridge, shoreline packed with blazer adorned spectators.

River poorly managed as no lanes marked at all and lots of little hire motor boats criss-crossing the race. Poor directions from the "marshalls" and one judges boat that was going at full tilt everywhere (instead of just when "following rowers" which I thought were the rules). Still EA were there (drinking tea, moored up)