Our new forum friends and they're jet skiers.

[ShipsWoofy]

Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

There are many people who do not visit the PBO forum and might have missed a recent discussion on jet ski dangers. The thread is here for anyone interested.

During the discussion we had some guests from PWCforums.co.uk pop in and join the discussions. It was quite an eye opener for many including myself and interesting for me that from within the PWC community they were telling us to report rogue skiers who showed loutish and dangerous behaviour.

The profile of jet ski's has been quite poor with the media recently and the knock on will be licencing, as it seems government and many other pressure groups believe bits of paper solve everything. But let us not be too complacent with this, unless naive enough to think the licence or regulations will stop at jet ski's and we will not be affected!

I personally believe more high profile prosecutions for law breaking and dangerous control of vessels will eventually hit home. The problem arises when the authorities and harbour masters, who have the bylaws to arrest these idiots seem unwilling to do anything. It seems often they stand back and watch, even it transpires the police will turn a blind eye.

Therefore any new regulation is doomed to failure. What do you think we can do as a community to encourage dangerous behaviour is prosecuted and in time the waters around our beaches become safer. Then at least we can continue to lobby education not regulation.

I would also like to invite our PWC friends in to give their points of view on this.

Discuss......

 

[LittleShip]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

By nature the PWC owners that are interested enough in their sport to take part in forum debate are not likely to be the louts that are causing trouble on the water.
I personally would be very interested in how they are going to educate the unruly ones that give them and their sport a bad name??

Tom

 

[fireball]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

The usual way to "control" behaviour is to encourage membership of clubs, these clubs can control the launch area and will have their own rules. Members in serious breech of these rules are dealt with ...
This is fine for larger boats who require moorings or dinghies that are not easily trailed or want to join in racing, but a Jetski is very portable and can be launched from just about anywhere.
I suggest that Jetskis owners get together and either start their own club or find a local yacht/sailing club and become members there (might need a bit of persuading!) and then organise "events", be it racing, accompanied passages etc etc - something desirable that non-members would like to join in on.
There will always be ppl who continue to cause "problems" but that happens in all sports ....

 

[neilfs]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

This is already the case, there are many PWC clubs around the UK, many more were started this year.

The RYA, in conjunction with the PWP ( http://www.pwpuk.org ) provide support and assistance to PWC clubs and to local authorities, harbours etc.

I am a member of the Solent Skiers Association ( http://www.solentskiers.org.uk ) and at peak membership we have over one hundred members.

Our club is based at Daedalus, Lee-on-the-Solent - our launch site is free and the slipway is public - unlike many established sailing clubs we don't have a club house.

The club itself has no control over who launches, nor do users launching there need to become members, have insurance or display their datatag registration numbers.

To become a member of the SSA, members are required to have insurance and display their datatag registration numbers.

Our club holds many events, including the main event The Wight Stuff, a press release about that event can be seen at http://www.qhmportsmouth.com/

The club operates Watersports Activity Patrollers on behalf of Gosport and Fareham Borough Councils, the patrollers advise people of the rules, the majority of people don't realise their mistakes.

Like with all these things the club, the patrollers etc have no way to stop someone launching, so if someone wishes to be an idiot, they can - we can only really ask them once, possibly twice to stop breaking the rules, ie slow down when close to shore.

The police often sit at Lee, however as you would expect the idiots behave while they are present.

I personally don't think further bans will achieve anything, as I am sure you are all aware, the existing bans have not stopped the idiots, all it achieves to do is limit the sensible PWC users in the sport they love.

 

[Solitaire]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

Just to show they are pretty decent guys. Look what they have done!

 

[fireball]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

So I suppose now you just need to gain control over the slipway/launch sites (or better still - get the council to control it, giving club members free access) and you'll disuade many of the plonkers that cause problems...
Less freedom for the individual may be, but could easily result in self regulation & control without the need for legislation to spoil the sport for everyone.

 

[Lakesailor]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

Don't give control to Councils. The H&SE frighten them to death and you find that you can't use them after hours (9-5.00pm) in case you hurt yourself.

 

[neilfs]

Re: Our new forum friends and they\'re jet skiers.

I think it is unlikely in our case they will take control of it, however other PWC clubs do have control over their slipway access via a keyed gate, and I've not heard of any specific opening time limits.