New restrictions on jet skis in parts of Kent

Concerto

Concerto

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Wouldn't it be good to see an improvement in behaviour from jet skis and other small fast craft. There was one pulling a toy full of people up the Medway on Monday doing stupid speeds up by the moorings (ie. in the 6 kn zone), and there were a couple of small tenders out, plus a canoe.

Speed limits don't seem to have much effect. The above is common from the Strand and up past MYC. It seems pretty unenforceable. It is difficult to see how compulsory registration will be also enforceable, especially along the whole of the North Kent Coast, and even if it was, how would that improve behaviour. Herne Bay Foreshore ran a rib a few years ago, but it was expensive for what it tried to do, and there are so many other places along the coast to launch from. Roads are full of drivers flouting the law, and roads have cameras and the odd police car.

So if it is unenforceable then it just becomes bureaucracy.

If jet skis become subject to registration it won't be long before all water users will be subject to this. CCC already require all boats left on the beach to be registered with them for a fee - quite what problem this overcomes, and whether it has I do not know.

Can't see it working.
 
Concerto said:
Canterbury City Council has passed new bye laws that restrict boats to an 8 knot speed limit in selected areas of coast and jet skis must have an identifiable number on display for identification purposes.
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/jet-ski-death-prompts-safety-curbs-206833/

Full details of the new bye laws are here.
https://news.canterbury.gov.uk/media/Seaside-pleasure-boat-byelaws.pdf

Let us hope that the registration scheme gets extended countrywide.
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Only a small step to requiring all craft to display an identity mark - from there a stumble to all craft needing to be registered and their operators being licensed and identifiable.
 
Gwylan said:
Only a small step to requiring all craft to display an identity mark - from there a stumble to all craft needing to be registered and their operators being licensed and identifiable.
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I don't see that as inevitable, though I would share your concern. There are specific concerns relating to jet-skis and regulation could easily be confined to them. The trouble is that the nuisance is not confined to speed-limited waters, serious though that area is. I feel especially sorry for the residents of places like Frinton who bought houses on the front years ago only to wake up one day and find that they can't sit outside on a summer afternoon without having to listen to the wasp-like drone of these beasts.
 
Gwylan said:
Only a small step to requiring all craft to display an identity mark - from there a stumble to all craft needing to be registered and their operators being licensed and identifiable.
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I’m not sure what problem this would cause the law abiding considerate boater?

If you’re bombing about on a jet ski acting like a complete cretin in between the moorings, it could be an issue.
 
Look at France - suddenly whole new business springs up. Schools to deliver the necessary "qualification", of various levels of course. No improvement in the level of competence, but everyone gets a drink from it. .....

The mandatory kit list......

Then there will be the enforcers, the licensing department and of course the actual cost of administering this thing which has risen out of the murk to plague us.
The enforcers will need boats and so on, guns probably.
Fixed penalty fines? What no reflective signalling device, sir? That will be £50.00 - cash or card?

Who will pay for those boats and brave boys in black then? Well our recently established maxim of "he user pays" seems to fit the model.

Oh! Damn it I forgot about the charge for the "lights & marks" Another biling opportunity.

Then there will be the "jobs worth" who insist on all the kit that we will have to carry. The insurance companies wil sense a little earner and tag along.

Then you will only be allowed to use approved moorings - with licences and who will pay?
 
Gwylan said:
Look at France - suddenly whole new business springs up. Schools to deliver the necessary "qualification", of various levels of course. No improvement in the level of competence, but everyone gets a drink from it. .....

The mandatory kit list......

Then there will be the enforcers, the licensing department and of course the actual cost of administering this thing which has risen out of the murk to plague us.
The enforcers will need boats and so on, guns probably.
Fixed penalty fines? What no reflective signalling device, sir? That will be £50.00 - cash or card?

Who will pay for those boats and brave boys in black then? Well our recently established maxim of "he user pays" seems to fit the model.

Oh! Damn it I forgot about the charge for the "lights & marks" Another biling opportunity.

Then there will be the "jobs worth" who insist on all the kit that we will have to carry. The insurance companies wil sense a little earner and tag along.

Then you will only be allowed to use approved moorings - with licences and who will pay?
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I tend to agree. There will be mission creep. There always is
 
Biggles Wader said:
I tend to agree. There will be mission creep. There always is
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There have been local areas of boating that require registration, and Armageddon hasn't arrived yet, so I don't share your pessimism, which is not like me at all. On the other hand, I don't think that the menace of jet-skis can easily be controlled, now that Pandora's box has been opened.
 
It may be that the consensus is that we do need regulation to control the excesses of a few but I would just caution to be careful what we wish for as we will all get more than we bargained for.
 
Like all things it's the few that cause trouble.
I've nothing against PWC owners generally, it's just the few that think it's clever to mess up other peoples' day, like blatting past a yacht at warp speed with a wiggle on the steering so as to soak those in the cockpit.
Referring to the OP, I live about 3/4 mile from the main launch site at Herne Bay and I do wonder sometimes what the local Council think they're achieving by allowing powerboating there at all. It's the central location on the seafront and the noise some days is unbelievable. Forget any ideas of a quiet day on the beach. Those who come here to blast around don't seem to bring anything to the town other than the noise. Rather than faff about with temporary registration, cameras etc, just close off the launch site, seemples.
As for the fatality referred to in the press cutting, that was near a second launch site at the west end of town. I really don't know why charges were never brought. Any similar road crash would have resulted in a 'causing death by dangerous driving' charge I'm sure.
Edit: actually the Council have not come up with any new by-laws, what they are doing is a survey of local users with proposed courses of action for us to comment on.
 
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We had a meeting where a representative of the PLA attended. He explained that it is difficult to prosecute a jet skier for speeding as no one has a speed camera. But, he explained that there are otherways to get a successful prosecution. see here https://twitter.com/EssexPoliceUK/status/1126491933172490240

the PLA are encouraging anyone who sees something amiss to try and film it and pass it on to them as evidence. This is ok for the area under the control of the PLA but I am sure it could be adopted by other authorities.
 
I don't have a particular problem with compulsory registration and the enforcement of some standards of training. Looking back, we bought our first boat with zero experience and zero training - and we were an accident waiting to happen! Every time we came into the marina, you could see people putting extra fenders out! :-)

More by luck than judgement, we managed to avoid sinking ourselves or anyone else long enough to learn by trial and error more or less how to do it - but that really was not the way it should have happened!
 
maby said:
I don't have a particular problem with compulsory registration and the enforcement of some standards of training. Looking back, we bought our first boat with zero experience and zero training - and we were an accident waiting to happen! Every time we came into the marina, you could see people putting extra fenders out! :-)

More by luck than judgement, we managed to avoid sinking ourselves or anyone else long enough to learn by trial and error more or less how to do it - but that really was not the way it should have happened!
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I'm glad that your period of incompetence passed without incident. I was fortunate in spending much of my youth messing around on the Broads in other people's boats. The point though is that there is no evidence as far as I am aware that a more restrictive regime would be of any actual benefit. Having sailed with several 'qualified' people of doubtful ability, I would as soon rely on my insurance as the pieces of paper that they carried. This does not mean that I am averse to proper training for those who want it, or certification schemes in general.
 
I think it is important to remember that a Jet Ski owner has as much right on the water as any other person
 
Just as large sail boats in a blow or indeed sail boats racing should obey the same limits and slow down if they go over the limit.

Ever seen that happen

Most sail boats only obey the limit because that is as fast as they can go
 
Bigplumbs said:
Just as large sail boats in a blow or indeed sail boats racing should obey the same limits and slow down if they go over the limit.

Ever seen that happen

Most sail boats only obey the limit because that is as fast as they can go
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That's just silly. There are few speed-limited areas where sailing boats are in a position to exceed the limit, and in any case a sailing boat doing a knot or two above the limit is hardly comparable to the idiot in the speedboat whose photo I put on another thread while doing about twenty knots past the seals in Hamford Water. In Brightlingsea Creek you might see the odd dinghy doing up to ten knots in the 4kn limit, but that is hardly a cause for concern.
 
johnalison said:
That's just silly. There are few speed-limited areas where sailing boats are in a position to exceed the limit, and in any case a sailing boat doing a knot or two above the limit is hardly comparable to the idiot in the speedboat whose photo I put on another thread while doing about twenty knots past the seals in Hamford Water. In Brightlingsea Creek you might see the odd dinghy doing up to ten knots in the 4kn limit, but that is hardly a cause for concern.
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I thought it was generally accepted that a Limit is just that a limit

Your post seems to imply that that is not the case and that a sail boat is fine to exceed the limit

So by your suggestions we can all set our own peramiters as you advocate above or is it you that make the rules

You also seem to understand little about speed on the water. My rib at the speed over the limit you suggest (8ish knots) will make far more wake than it willl at 18 -20 knots but hey ho

You continue to sail your yacht tacking all over the place and getting in others way and being a nuisance when You have an engine and could go in a straight line.

So you see many consider power craft to be a nuisance and some consider yachts to be a nuisance
. Take your pick or you could just accept that sometimes you are causing the nuisance and sometimes it is others

Tolerance is the word you could perhaps think about
 
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