Shipping Minister Keith Hill is a Moron

[oldgit]

the good ole USA

Always a bit worrying our colonial cousins. A large chunk of the population believe the world was created in seven days, some others believe that the rapture is about to take them any time now and very very few have ever been out of their own country.
However someone over there restored my faith by designing a bumper sticker which stated ...(If you are taken by the rapture......... can I have your boat as you will no longer need it in heaven)

Oooh look its still not dark and its nearly 5pm

 

[Observer]

Re: Status Quo?......nm

According to the very full exposition by Rhinorhino on an earlier thread, the British authorities do have jurisdiction over a foreign ship in UK waters, so that part of your objection fails.

As for your first and third points, the absence of an objective criterion for being "unfit to command" (or whatever the phraseology is), is not necessarily a handicap. In fact, possibly the reverse as it could catch use of drugs/stimulants other than alcohol.

As for the third, has it happened? Where? When? Even if it has, Merchant Shipping Acts do provide a means to bring an offender to justice.

I think I'm with Steve on this (at least as to the general thrust of his complaint). Either there is a problem or there isn't. If not, the solution is otiose.

 

[FlyingSpud]

Re: Status Quo?......nm

An answer for both you and Steve, rather than repeat myself

I’m not for more regulation, as it seems both you and Steve think. Where I do think I part from Steve is how you minimise the impact of regulation.

Really, all my points were designed to show was that even someone with such a freewheeling ‘anti nanny state’ philosophy as Steve ultimately must accept some controls and therefore all of these sort of arguments are matters of degree, not black and white. So Steve accepts commercial vessels have to have drink laws and that there has to be a means of enforcement

Clearly an Avon is nonsense and I think it doesn’t make sense with, say, my boat and its 18hp Diesel though I do think that you have to make a case against it, but I think if you start saying as Steve does, that it is acceptable to allow drunks to drive powerful RIBS, then that means you lose all credibility on the arguable points, and they are still arguable points as the regulations are yet to be made, and as always the devil is in the details

If you look at my comments I’m quite critical of the proposals and have made a few points about how daft they are applied to boats like ours. For example, earlier in this thread I made the point that the skipper of the Bowbelle would not have been convicted under this law, and as such, it would impliedly have exonerated him from all responsibility.

Actually, I think you will find that foreign flagged boat is subject to both sets of laws, that is certainly what the Department thought in their impact study, so my comments stand.

 

[Jools_of_Top_Cat]

Re: Status Quo?......nm

If my girlfriend and I are heading back to our mooring. I have had quite a few drinks and would fail the breath test, but she is on the helm I am giving instruction onto the mooring bouy. We get stopped by a police launch and they breathalise me. Could I be arrested as the skipper of the boat?

Julian

http://www.ukstaffords.com

 

[FlyingSpud]

Re: Status Quo?......nm

Don’t know, I mentioned above that this seemed to be a difficult issue for the regulations to deal with, after all, in a car or a plane it is obvious who is driving, but on a boat less so.

Thinking about the 15 year old crossing the Atlantic on his own, does the new law imply a minimum age to be in charge? Say, my wife and I are blind drunk but my 12 year old is on the boat with us, can we say she is in charge? If not, then presumably this is because she is not old enough, so what age is old enough? (17 like a car?). Once that age is fixed then how can someone below that age be in charge of a boat single handed?

I think these are the anomalies that would exist if you bring in these provisions to a boat with auxiliary power, and I assume/hope that the RYA are using them when lobbying the ministry over the Regulations

 

[hillyarder]

More likely a Mormon than a socialist.

You're probably right but I doubt he's a socialist.