oldharry
Well-known member
Bobbing around in my little boat somewhere in the crowds between Itchenor and East Head the other day, the inevitable lout in a power boat (and I'm not anti power boaters - let me finish!) - the inevitable lout in a power boat came crashing through at 20+ knots creating a wash like a destroyer, and simply messing it up for everyone else.
No sign of Rogers' big black RIB , so assumed he was off somewhere else collecting harbour dues, and I could not be bothered to dig out the mobile phone and ring the Harbour Board about it. Several other large and powerful craft were rumbling in a frustrated sort of way up the channel at a little over the regulation 8 knots, and being planing hulls off the plane they were creating a similar sort of disturbance.
Off out to sea towards the Nab where it was quite a lot calmer....
Why do they do it? Well the thought occurred to me that if you set a speed limit - then that is the speed people will travel at, rather than adjusting speed do the conditions and your wash. On the roads, we have a 30, 40 or 50 mph speed limit - so how fast do we all travel? 35. 45 and 55mph - except when theres a yellow box on a post roadside... A speed limit seems to say for most of us 'this is the correct speed to travel' - a little faster if Plods not looking, and no slower, regardless of the actual safety limitations of the situation.
Motorway 'advisory limits' are a classic example - if the sign says 50, the average speed drops to around 70- 75 ish. And woe betide anyone who actually slows down to 50!
And yet we have all 'passed the test'
Seems to me regulation of our hobby is going to do the same: everyone will have had to 'do the course' and many will therefore assume that they can safely handle their boats safely, regardless of the conditions
Any one willing to run a book that RNLI emergency statistics will actually go UP if/when regulation comnes into force?
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No sign of Rogers' big black RIB , so assumed he was off somewhere else collecting harbour dues, and I could not be bothered to dig out the mobile phone and ring the Harbour Board about it. Several other large and powerful craft were rumbling in a frustrated sort of way up the channel at a little over the regulation 8 knots, and being planing hulls off the plane they were creating a similar sort of disturbance.
Off out to sea towards the Nab where it was quite a lot calmer....
Why do they do it? Well the thought occurred to me that if you set a speed limit - then that is the speed people will travel at, rather than adjusting speed do the conditions and your wash. On the roads, we have a 30, 40 or 50 mph speed limit - so how fast do we all travel? 35. 45 and 55mph - except when theres a yellow box on a post roadside... A speed limit seems to say for most of us 'this is the correct speed to travel' - a little faster if Plods not looking, and no slower, regardless of the actual safety limitations of the situation.
Motorway 'advisory limits' are a classic example - if the sign says 50, the average speed drops to around 70- 75 ish. And woe betide anyone who actually slows down to 50!
And yet we have all 'passed the test'
Seems to me regulation of our hobby is going to do the same: everyone will have had to 'do the course' and many will therefore assume that they can safely handle their boats safely, regardless of the conditions
Any one willing to run a book that RNLI emergency statistics will actually go UP if/when regulation comnes into force?
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