RYA & Lifejackets

[alant]

The RYA has reviewed its policy for lifejackets and buoyancy aids. The policy is now:

“Wear a lifejacket or buoyancy aid unless it is safe to take it off.”

As Principals of RYA training centres and instructors working at those centres, this change in policy should affect you very little. The safety record at RYA centres is excellent, so it is unlikely that you will need to change your procedures.

At an RYA recognised training centre, the supervising instructor will continue to make the decision based on experience, the RYA training centre guidance notes and relevant instructor handbooks.

Dinghy sailors, beginner windsurfers, users of open powerboats, personal watercraft and yacht tenders should wear a lifejacket or buoyancy aid, as appropriate, at all times.

On board a sailing yacht or motor cruiser, the skipper or instructor should decide, taking into account the weather conditions and experience of the crew. Crew are not expected to wear personal flotation when securely moored or when below deck. There will also be many occasions underway when the risk of entering the water is low, and an experienced skipper may decide that lifejackets are not required.

 

[Athene V30]

This sounds like common sense. Can't be real can it?

 

[EdWingfield]

When I decide to go for a swim off the back, the risk of entering the water is high. Must I therefore wear a lifejacket?

RYA make no opinion on surfers using lifejackets, why not?

 

[mikehibb]

[ QUOTE ]
On board a sailing yacht or motor cruiser, the skipper or instructor should decide, taking into account the weather conditions and experience of the crew. Crew are not expected to wear personal flotation when securely moored or when below deck. There will also be many occasions underway when the risk of entering the water is low, and an experienced skipper may decide that lifejackets are not required.


[/ QUOTE ]

Souds quite sensible to me. I will be buying buoyancy aids for my two nephews as they have very little experience on boats any way.

When I was windsurfing in my youth I always donned a buoyancy aid (not life jacket) it also double up as a chest harness,. Glad I did as I once got swiped by the boom and was knocked off, not quite out cold, but I was thankfull that I did have a buoyancy aid on. Trip to hospital was needed, and 6 stitches just below my eye, and a tetanus jab which hurt more than the original injury.

 

[David_Jersey]

IMO what the RYA wants to do is purely up to them.

I do hope they are not making "rules" for anyone else.......

 

[Cornishman]

I am wondering why you made your post Non Boaty? Surely this subject is eminently "boaty", or did your NB mean Nota Bene?

 

[alldownwind]

[ QUOTE ]
IMO what the RYA wants to do is purely up to them.
I do hope they are not making "rules" for anyone else.......

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm no great fan of the way the RYA operates, but they are the governing body of UK sailing and will be the only ones with a chance to stop Mr.Broon bringing in compulsory wearing of lifejackets, as he and his beaurocratic hordes will inevitably try to do eventually.
As such, I believe the RYA's statement is welcome.

 

[alant]

Re: RYA & Lifejackets

Nota Bene?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still speaking latin down your way then! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[grumpy_o_g]

I wasn't aware the RYA were the governing body? As far as I can make out they have appointed themselves to represent the sailing community to the government but what powers do the RYA have to govern my sailing?

 

[webcraft]

[ QUOTE ]
what powers do the RYA have to govern my sailing?

[/ QUOTE ] None. They represent UK sailing interests though - do you think you could do a better job?

- W

 

[grumpy_o_g]

I wouldn't presume to - I don't remember me asking for anyone to represent me. That's my main beef - we've ended up with what is basically yet another quango.

However, while they seem capable of basic administration (and making money out of the process). I have no faith in them when the chips are down. Red diesel was presented as a success because we only have to pay £1.20 a litre instead of buying entirely new fuel systems yet private aircraft retained a benefit.

If the government decides to introduce licencing you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll end up with it and it'll be presented as a success because all we have to do is pay more for the existing RYA framework.

I don't think whether I could do a better job is relevant - more to the point is, are those who are doing the job doing it well enough and are the doing the right job? On balance my feeling is they aren't a disaster but neither do I feel well-represented by them. The view of yachting as an elitist activity is proof enough of that to me. The RYA should be out there presenting the true situation. I know people who have spent thousands on carbon-fibre fishing rods and charter boats every other week but Angling isn't viewed as a rich-man's sport.

 

[Woodentop]

[ QUOTE ]
This sounds like common sense. Can't be real can it?

[/ QUOTE ]

It is common sense. I am both suprised and delighted.

The decision is to be made by the skipper of the boat, according to the conditions "there and then" and not by a someone sat at a desk in Brussels,

 

[Cornishman]

Re: RYA & Lifejackets

Latin for "note well". NB is a common enough abbreviation used to draw your attention to something in writing to which you should pay particular attention. If you want a full definition look in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (available in your local library if you don't have your own copy).
As well as speaking Cornish we do give our children a good basic education in English.

 

[Cornishman]

[ QUOTE ]
I have no faith in them when the chips are down

[/ QUOTE ]

I can see why you call yourself Grumpy. Lighten up a bit and read the history of the attempts in Parliament to make licences for boats and qualifications for those sailing them which the RYA has managed over the last 30 years or so to snuff out before they reached the floor of the House of Commons. They have also kept the costs of radio licences and the training needed to have one down to reasonable levels as well as keeping the MCA and its forebears under control when it comes to things like the Code of Practice for the Safety of Small Commercial Vessels.
As for being the Governing Body, they were not self appointed but they are the body to which Goverments and others turn for advice which in turn led to the Government appointing them. Because of the size of its membership it now carries a lot of weight when negotiating on our behalf with all sorts of bodies such as planning committees, Government departments and so on. They don't always win, and such is the way of publicity the battles they do win rarely get any coverage.
If you want any more detail PM me for chapter and verse.

 

[ctelfer38]

Cornishman - very well put - time someone spoke up for the oft maligned RYA. They are often at the receiving end of unwarranted generalised criticism. There is plenty of evidence for those who care to seek it that much good work is done in a quiet way to keep the UK sailing scene lightly but effectively regulated as is possible in an increasingly regulated world? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif