Possible catastrophe averted

steve930

steve930

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Weymouth/Dorchester
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Well as a follow on from my Weymouth to Lowestoft thread, I had some people come and view my boat today their plans being to buy the boat and sail her round to Lowestoft.

My boat is offered for sale with a trailer, now the perspective buyers have NEVER owned a boat let alone driven one ( one of the buyers had a jet ski ) and they wanted to sail her back to Lowestoft whilst their other friend towed the trailer back empty.

They didn't have life jackets, no vhf licences, no idea of how to read charts or operate a GPS plotter, the list goes on !!!!

The buyers thought their planned journey would give them all the skill/experience required hence not wanting to tow the boat back on the trailer! Needless to say I managed to diplomatically dissuade them from buying my boat, I'm sure their voyage would've ended in disaster. yes as a result I've lost a possible sale but I wouldn't want their lives on my conscience, let alone the nuisance caused to the rnli etc
 
The person who was going to tow the trailer home had (a) never towed anything so big, so only felt comfortable towing an empty trailer (b) he was driving a Renault trafic van!
 
Bigplumbs said:
How big is your boat ?
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She's 24ft

Whitelighter said:
Another option would be sell them the boat with a small premium to allow you to assist them back with ut
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Yeah but I simply don't have the time to do things like that, I know it's a lost sale but someone else will come along


Robert Wilson said:
Were they two 70+ year olds from USA?........

Anyway, well done for dissuading them and salving your conscience.
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Lol, I wonder if the Americans were heroes on their eyes ?
 
Is a difficult one. I think you done the right thing. Have to say I'm surprised on how many people are buying boats when they know nothing about seamanship. They forget or don't even know that the sea will kill you without even trying. Maybe it's time we go down the route that other contries are and make people take tests and hold licences before being allowed to sail boats
 
lionelz said:
Maybe it's time we go down the route that other contries are and make people take tests and hold licences before being allowed to sail boats
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Over more than 25 years boating in countries that have compulsory licensing I haven't noticed that it conspicuously improves the quality of seamanship. Unfortunately no amount of legislation will stop some people behaving idiotically. Fortunately Steve's altruism has prevented what could have been a very unfortunate outcome.
 
I'd have towed the boat for them for a sale. A day of your time. Altruism is great but I suspect there is more to the story.
 
BruceK said:
I'd have towed the boat for them for a sale. A day of your time. Altruism is great but I suspect there is more to the story.
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Yes there's more.
It was 3 youngish lads. , I was on my own & didn't feel comfortable taking all of them on a sea trial ( next time I'll have a friend with me)!

I'm self employed, just had a hernia operation over Xmas and trying to catch up with the back log of work as a result, let alone household chores at the weekends

I wouldn't want the responsibility of delivering a boat which would no longer belong to me halfway across the country!

And finally I would rather see my boat, which I've spent a huge amount of time & money on go to a good home. ..
 
IDAMAY said:
Over more than 25 years boating in countries that have compulsory licensing I haven't noticed that it conspicuously improves the quality of seamanship. Unfortunately no amount of legislation will stop some people behaving idiotically. Fortunately Steve's altruism has prevented what could have been a very unfortunate outcome.
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That's at maybe I wounder if there are satistics to support either case. But doing nothing to improve safety and standards is surely not an answer either.
 
lionelz said:
That's at maybe I wounder if there are satistics to support either case. But doing nothing to improve safety and standards is surely not an answer either.
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Life in nanny-state Britain is regulated enough, thanks. I'd very much prefer not to rush towards licensing and registration.
 
steve930 said:
Yes there's more.
It was 3 youngish lads. , I was on my own & didn't feel comfortable taking all of them on a sea trial ( next time I'll have a friend with me)!

I'm self employed, just had a hernia operation over Xmas and trying to catch up with the back log of work as a result, let alone household chores at the weekends

I wouldn't want the responsibility of delivering a boat which would no longer belong to me halfway across the country!

And finally I would rather see my boat, which I've spent a huge amount of time & money on go to a good home. ..
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It's the last bit isn't it. Bloody hard to let go. I struggled letting my cuddy go.
 
lionelz said:
That's at maybe I wounder if there are satistics to support either case. But doing nothing to improve safety and standards is surely not an answer either.
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Sorry, this is not authoritative, buy I do remember, some years ago, a report in, I think the RNLI magazine, that quoted boating accident and injury statistics for a number of countries.

If I remember correctly, the UK came out very well in that review (ie comparatively few accidents and injuries).
 
Well that's good news, maybe what training we have (by choice) is very good. I am not and advocate of having rules for rules sake just for trying to improve all our skills (no replacement for experience) and reducing incidents
 
I'm not a fan of registration either tbh. I think in pretty much every aspect of life there are a handful of people who "ruin it for everyone else" I think it's just human nature & no amount of legislation/law making will ever make any difference

I know of a company director I contract to who decided to get into boating He booked himself RYA lessons/seamanship etc and completed the courses. After completing the courses he went out and purchased a 27ft doral sportscruiser, once the deal was completed he decided to go out on his maiden voyage along with wife & daughters.

The day he chose to go out there was 30+ mph winds, all went well until her returned to the marina and tried to moor the boat in those conditions! Iirc he damaged two other neighbouring boats, let alone the chaos onboard from not delegating duties to his wife in assisting him.

The moral being here's someone who's gone into boating "the right way" yet it's still ended in disaster. Admittedly it may have been worse without him receiving any instruction, but anguish and damage was caused nevertheless
 
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