RYA promoting PWC's ?

[Birdseye]

Just received this email and am having to consider my association and 40 year subscription to RYA.
They seem to be drifting on a different stream to me.
Personal Watercraft: Tips To Get You Started

they arent promoting wet bikes. To the contrary, they are trying to get training of a sort to the mostly young idiots that buy these toys. Personally I reckon they will fail miserably but they should try. If they succeed then maybe old pfhhts like you and me will be more relaxed about these toys.

 

[Refueler]

they arent promoting wet bikes. To the contrary, they are trying to get training of a sort to the mostly young idiots that buy these toys. Personally I reckon they will fail miserably but they should try. If they succeed then maybe old pfhhts like you and me will be more relaxed about these toys.

Like everything ... its always down to the idiots as to whether they choose to join a group and/or learn .... I think RYA will struggle to get any meaningful numbers take up any form with them.

We have similar in the Model Flying world .... idiots with drones ignoring safety and causing problems for us more safety aware flyers ... plenty of tries to get them to listen - but they are not interested ... they shrug shoulders and say - its a free world.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I live on the shore of Ammersee in Bavaria, it is a relatively large lake with a 42km shoreline. There are practically no motor boats on the lake, no PWCs, and the few motor boats that are on the lake are well behaved and pretty inconspicuous. There are hundreds of sailing boats.

PWCs are banned, and motor boats, as well as the sailing boats with engines or moorings, have to get a licence. Anything with a motor needs an MOT to ensure the motor is meeting emissions standards and not leaking fluids into the lake. Every boat that requires a licence also has a registration number prominently displayed so they can always be identified.

Anyone behaving anti-socially will have their licence revoked and will have to remove their boat from the lake.

It works - the lake is a very peaceful place with sailing boats, wind and kite-surfers, motor boats, SUP users and swimmers all co-existing with no drama. There are plenty of dis-used quarries with enough water for jet-skis and water-skiers to whizz around in .... segregation works IMO.

We had a group of American friends come to visit and they looked at the lake and commented ... "If this was back home, there would be the constant sound of engines and motor boats, jetskis would be charging around everywhere ... and it would smell of petrol fumes".

We, as residents, don't want that, so the rules were created to prevent it.

There is a water-skiing area in the middle of the lake but it is only "open" at certain times and hardly used.

I hope it stays that way.

I have nothing against PWCs per se, but they are built to be driven flat out - so keeping them and their users away from anchorages, moorings, beaches, and anywhere where they pose either a danger to other users or will create excessive noise pollution seems sensible. Simply because of their nature, they attract boy racers and adrenaline junkies who just want to plonk their ar$e on a seat and tear about.

In the med you can't avoid them, if you're unlucky they buzz around the anchorages for hours on end creating a constant background noise which is mildly annoying, but sometimes the idiots come a play in amongst the anchored boats where it becomes dangerous and in this case I can only sit and imagine their untimely demise going flat-out into an unmarked landline.