Ridiculous legislation

jimi

jimi

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<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rya.org.uk/Default.asp?contentID=3607524>From the RYA site</A> Really hope the RYA win this one.

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Yeah but how crazy is it to potentially face a criminal offence, punishable by up to 2 years in prison and a fine of up to £5,000, for not reporting a flat battery?

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One of the parties might report it and if the other doesn't he/she is has comitted a criminal offence!!!

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This would be a perfect opportunity to 'encourage' government to think through the consequence of their stupid red tape legislation.... let me explain.... this proposed legislation currently would include dinghy capsizes....

I sail an asymmetric dinghy..... if it is windy, then in a typical 4 hour sail I would expect to capsize at least 10 times, and possibly 20 or more if its really blowing....

Now, if I attend a typical event, there might be between 30 and 100 boats entered... so pick the right occasion, and we could send them 2000 reports per day...

Allow for there being, in the autumn, at least 2 of these running every weekend across about 8 weeks... and every class also running one 3 to 5 day national championship...

I calculate that during Sept and Oct, we could possibly submit 145,000 reports....

Add in a few flat batteries in the cruising community, the 30 or 40 so Starboard calls per race, the odd mark being nudged, a canoeist dropping his paddle...

Lets say a nice round 500,000 incidents in 2 months....

So, if a form takes an average employee 1/2 hr to process... given a standard working week, that would need a staff of 824 just to process the forms... add in some management, some admin, finance, etc etc... lets say a nice round 2000 people..... now these employess might cost in the region of £80k per person if we consider the full costs of employing them... so thats £13M per month in salary and support costs (pensions, tax, NI etc etc).....

Load on all the costs, and they might get, what.... £350M per annum... £450M per annum.... no... its government, so lets factor in some inefficiency in buying a new state of the art building, and a 5 year consultation on where to site the offices.... lets say £800M per annum.....

Ho humhh.... I wonder how long it would be before they realised that genuine safety issue might get lost in the noise.... and that the ill considered proposal will actually cost the innocent tax payer a bloody fortune, and will acheive a significant deterioration in real safety..... /forums/images/icons/mad.gif

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Would you think there is a case for "civil disobedience" here? ie, "striking" your neighbors vessel when you come home with no damage, and reporting it? (i mean tell a fib) Or am i just being silly?

During the summer, there has to be well over 1000 marina related collisions over a solent weekend.. reporting and processing every one would cause some mighty administration costs. Who would do this stuff.. MCA or the Tony B Liar's Yacht and Small Craft Incident Tzar?

Its stupid beyond belief, totally typical of a ludicrous society of over protection which makes me so desperate to leave my beloved Blighty.

I think I'm more upset at it all than angry, we used to be a great nation (with its faults).

James

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DO THE RYA EVER WIN ANYTHING IMPORTANT TO US?

I have to admit I do not keep up to date with the legislative battles they purport to fight on our behalf, so I am probably the least qualified person on Scuttlebutt to make any comment on this, but I would like to hear other peoples opinions......or even better, a list of their successes........ or failures like the RCD, or compulsory passage plans, or Red Diesel (bound to fail) etc etc.....

Like I said, I'm not really qualified to comment or criticise, and I really would like to hear where they have made a SIGNIFICANT difference on behalf of us.

By us, I mean non-racing, just cruising, ordinary rag & stick sailors.

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There has to be a case for us all to just get some of these forms prefilled with all the relevant details - just insert time & date etc and send them all off - without stamps of course!

If they do start receiving hundreds after every weekend i can see the MCA or whoever is responsible for them whining back to the government.

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by jac on 04/11/2004 21:07 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
Just overwhelm them. If everyone sent in 10 reports everytime they went out, the system would collapse.

'My fenders accidentall touched the boat next to me when returning to my berth' for instance could be duplicated and have a new date inserted each time you went out. Every single person should also contact the coastguard for a radio check each time you go out, as it's now illegal to have a faulty radio, so the vhf system in the solent would be ground to a halt with huge safety implications.

We can be pretty inventive in terms of what constitutes an incident, as the terms are so broad that we can't really be certain what is and what isn't, so just report everthing to be on the safe side!!!!!

Lets see, we've got over 200 serious posters on here, so if we each submitted 20 reports a week, and spread the word around friends and marinas!! <g>
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Oops, while I was writing that, everyone else had the same idea

<hr width=100% size=1>Me transmitte sursum, caledoni <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by BrendanS on 04/11/2004 21:13 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
Do you reckon we could make the national news if mobilised all Yacht and Dinghy Clubs around the UK and submitted a nice round 1Million applications in the first month or two.... now that would be a beautiful piece of peaceful protest! /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

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tabloids would love it!!

Bonkers Governent drafts unworkable legislaton. EU to blame. type of stuff

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<<If they do start receiving hundreds after every weekend i can see the MCA or whoever is responsible for them whining back to the government.>>

The Directive says
Reporting of incidents and accidents at sea
12. - (1) When a ship is involved in -


(a) an accident;

(b) an incident; or

(c) a pollution event likely to result in the pollution of United Kingdom waters or the coastline of the United Kingdom,


in controlled waters, the master of that ship shall immediately send to Her Majesty's Coastguard responsible for the area in which it occurred by the quickest means possible a report containing the information specified in paragraph (3

the "quickest means possible" must surely be VHF with call to the CG on 16. lol

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And armed with all that evidence relating to the obvious dangers of the sport, which had been conclusively confirmed by the reports gathered by the caring state, why who could deny the need for big brother to accept his paternal duty to protect ourselves from ourselves!!

Greater love has no politician than to interfere with our rights for our sake because he alone knows what is right!

What worries me is that I am an optimist and by the time they have made me a criminal folk are even less likely to listen to my side.

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I was told the other day that there is a view held by some economists that any work is better than being on the dole. Therefore, this government creates non jobs to get people off the dole; that is why the public sector and quangos are expanding so rapidly. Its doesn't matter if the jobs are not wealth creating (are they ever in those sectors). This even extends to encouraging business start-ups (not that I'm against that), but it is viewed cynically. That's why we end up with home composting advisers, and why we could end up with a much larger MCA. I find it a frightening concept. By the way those advisers do not advise on how to turn your home into compost, just in case any pedantic readers jump on that one.

Of course there will come a day when the priavte sector wealth generation cannot sustain the public sector...



<hr width=100% size=1>Rgds
Phil
 
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