RYA and wind farms

[Sturgess]

"Navigation through any operational wind farm should not create significant additional risks for recreational boaters, however we are concerned that the preferred development area as confirmed by Eneco is poorly located from a wider navigational perspective".

This official RYA response to the proposed wind farm West of Wight is bizarre. The RYA is supposed to be a voice for yachtsmen and women. As such the RYA should oppose a "wind farm" directly on the route from the Solent and Poole to France. Sailing a yacht through a wind farm is not safe and the RYA should oppose any wind farm proposed on a historic and traditional sailing area.
The RYA current response is disgraceful and I suggest all RYA members should consider why they send money to a group so out of touch with the needs of weekend sailors.

 

[Quandary]

What you quote is very different from the RYA statement regarding the Kintyre Array which they submitted to the Scottish Government about a fortnight ago. Very robustly worded and challenging the proposal on safety grounds it seem to have been effective, the project was abandoned yesterday. The statement can be downloaded from the 'for Argyll' website if you want to compare though I am sure it must also be on RYAs website along with the one you refer to.

 

[Stork_III]

"Navigation through any operational wind farm should not create significant additional risks for recreational boaters, however we are concerned that the preferred development area as confirmed by Eneco is poorly located from a wider navigational perspective".

This official RYA response to the proposed wind farm West of Wight is bizarre. The RYA is supposed to be a voice for yachtsmen and women. As such the RYA should oppose a "wind farm" directly on the route from the Solent and Poole to France. Sailing a yacht through a wind farm is not safe and the RYA should oppose any wind farm proposed on a historic and traditional sailing area.
The RYA current response is disgraceful and I suggest all RYA members should consider why they send money to a group so out of touch with the needs of weekend sailors.

There is already a thread on this. http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264631

 

[oldharry]

"Navigation through any operational wind farm should not create significant additional risks for recreational boaters, however we are concerned that the preferred development area as confirmed by Eneco is poorly located from a wider navigational perspective".

This official RYA response to the proposed wind farm West of Wight is bizarre. The RYA is supposed to be a voice for yachtsmen and women. As such the RYA should oppose a "wind farm" directly on the route from the Solent and Poole to France. Sailing a yacht through a wind farm is not safe and the RYA should oppose any wind farm proposed on a historic and traditional sailing area.
The RYA current response is disgraceful and I suggest all RYA members should consider why they send money to a group so out of touch with the needs of weekend sailors.

Would it not be an idea to tell them you feel so strongly about it? We complain they have not been telling us what they are doing, but we need to tell them what we think, too.

 

[Sturgess]

wind farms and RYA

thanks Harry - yes I have given feedback to RYA. However, one would think an organisation set up for yachtmen would understand their function. They need to stand up to government and defend the traditional right of yachtmen to sail our seas.

 

[Sturgess]

wind farms and RYA

There is already a thread on this. http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=264631

thanks but my "thread" is about how the RYA is failing in its core function ie to defend the traditional rights of yachtmen to sail all our seas.

 

[Sans Bateau]

thanks Harry - yes I have given feedback to RYA. However, one would think an organisation set up for yachtmen would understand their function. They need to stand up to government and defend the traditional right of yachtmen to sail our seas.

You would be pleasantly surprised how much the RYA do stand up for the cruising yachtsman. Their real only failure is, I suspect because they are doing the job, is telling cruising yachtsmen exactly what they are doing.

 

[PeterGibbs]

"Navigation through any operational wind farm should not create significant additional risks for recreational boaters, however we are concerned that the preferred development area as confirmed by Eneco is poorly located from a wider navigational perspective".

This official RYA response to the proposed wind farm West of Wight is bizarre. The RYA is supposed to be a voice for yachtsmen and women. As such the RYA should oppose a "wind farm" directly on the route from the Solent and Poole to France. Sailing a yacht through a wind farm is not safe and the RYA should oppose any wind farm proposed on a historic and traditional sailing area.
The RYA current response is disgraceful and I suggest all RYA members should consider why they send money to a group so out of touch with the needs of weekend sailors.

You are right, but as long as the RYA has a prominent royal as its head it will not campaign on any issues that are even mildly controversial. Nothing is going to change until the RYA reforms itself, or another organisation takes on the load of protecting all the interests of sailors including availability of moorings, eborder restrictions, fuel and tax legislation and consultations on all the other legislative burdens that the RYA occasionally sends observers to.

The Cruising Association (of which I am also a member) is well ahead of the curve in this regard, has a Technical Division that is really serious about our sport, and should be supported en masse.

The RYA is a nice part of our history and seems intent and even happy to remain there. I have just received its brochure and lost count of the blazers....

PWG

 

[webcraft]

You are right, but as long as the RYA has a prominent royal as its head it will not campaign on any issues that are even mildly controversial. Nothing is going to change . . .

Do you ever bother reading a thread before trotting out your cherished prejudices at the earliest opportunity?

If you did bother to you might have noticed that the RYA's protest about the Kintyre Array, a massive wind farm that would have been on the main drag round the Mull of Kintyre, seems to have been instrumental in causing Scottish and Southern Energy to abandon the project - and renewables are even more of a sacred cow up here than they are down your way.

Just two weeks after the RYA's representation to the Scottish government SSE said:

Initial site survey work and consultations relating to the wind farm planned to be developed 2km off the west coast of Kintyre have identified a number of factors that have led SSE to decide not to proceed further with the development of this site. These include: the wind resource; the proximity to Campbeltown Airport and local communities; and the impact on recreational sailing in the area.

- W