The 'infection' has spread to here ... Jetski's

[Alicatt]

Its funny actually .... my 25ft Motor Sailer with its 47HP Perkins can create the biggest waves ever if I give her the gun .... 9kts is easy and with that deep belly hull and full moulded bilge keels - she is using all her displacement hull to create those waves !
She can put big MoBo's waves to shame !!

Hunter has a full keel and at hullspeed she is putting some wash out, the wash is the limiting factor in how fast we can go on the canal, at the speed limit I can put the wash on the tow path, about 1m higher than the canal, we are only allowed 30cm of wash to reach the canal banks so around10km/h is our speed limit, also opening up the throttle then I may just touch the bottom of the canal at 1.5 to 2m deep. Going onto the Albert Canal which is much wider and deeper at around 5m

This is the Albert Kanaal not too far from Antwerp, we had been in front of the two barges in front of us but they have priority going through the locks so we were back behind them, we had Just came down in speed from about 20km/h to 15km/h as we were catching up the barge in front of us, and we were turning off to the canal to a smaller side canal in a few minutes so no real point in overtaking them.

The Ski and wake boats are more of a problem for smaller boats, we got swamped by a passing wake boat last year with our little river boat, threw us about and scared the life out my wife, plus it was outside the high speed zone. Going past that same area a few weeks ago with ski boats and skiers in the water oh how I was tempted to open up the taps and give them a piece of their own medicine, I did not though and went past the ski boats at a crawl

 

[johnalison]

Bad behaviour is not uncommon in any group of young males. It just happens that certain technologies allow some of them to be not only a nuisance but also a risk to others. Jet-skies are high on the list of such machines, and particularly bad in that they give access to areas that were previously quiet, and also because one or two young men can affect hundreds or even thousands. That may seem like an overstatement but a jet-ski or three off our Essex coast can degrade the environment for several miles of beach and residences. A recent problem relates to electric bikes, appealing to a similar demographic, but at least these have the virtue, as well as the menace, of being quiet.

 

[Daydream believer]

Jetski users have been caught & fined on numerous occasions in the River Blackwater area.
Many years ago I saw the police boat Alert on a really crowded hot day,carefully drift down through the moorings unseen. Our club had called them up due to the trouble they were causing amongst swimmers. They were NOT watersport club boats, but had gained access via the now closed public ramp. Then as one made its way to the shore near to Alert, the police boat opened its throttle & the surge of water knocked the rider of the jetski. The police grabbed the jetski about 75-100 yds from the shore & took the rider on to the bow. They then positioned the boat in front of the cheering crowd on the beach & the policeman made a display of ticking him off & booking him whilst they stood on the bow as near to the shore as they could get Alert
It was really funny & the bloke looked a right fool. Inspite of this they still managed to catch a couple more.
.
Quite a few years ago our safety boat was called to an instance where a total newbie was being shown how to use the jetskie by a friend on another one. Somehow the newbie approached his friend then suddenly accelerated & one of them was killed in the resulting collision.

 

[Wansworth]

Small fast boats are not far behind in the lack of respect for other water users ,here in Galicia a man was killed by a speed boat controlled by an untrained owner .Luckily the bathing areas are marked very visibly to keep people safe from boats especially jet skies that are very popular

 

[The Q]

Luckily jetskis are banned on the Norfolk Broads, the speed limit at most is 6mph, 4 mph through moorings and villages..
We do have occasional problems with fishermen.
1 refusing to move when fishing from bankside moorings, even though there's big signs saying the should do so.
2, broads regulation 29 says they should lift their tackle and not obstruct the navigation, many don't know that, and the ever increasing length of fishing poles ( over 40ft now) means they are trying to take even more of the narrow rivers.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

In our area we have quite a few jetskis, they are mostly owned by greybearded gents in expensive drysuits. They travel in convoys, and cause no problems. Conversely we have quite a few sea anglers, who are universally a pain in the R.S. We towed 2 lines away on Saturday, sailing to the finish line. They were most upset, but then, they were standing next to a big red sign that says ‘no fishing from the end of the pier’.

 

[Wansworth]

Years ago now a friend who owned a Dutch Botter was taken to court as he had been clocked by the police exceeding the speed limit off Itchenor o his Botter

 

[ducked]

Just thee lack of consideration for others and more money for kids toys

A sign of the times I think but as we all get older, we wish for less hassle and less noise

And a heat seeking missile. There used to be a how to on one of the Hobie cat forums on "using AIM-9 Missiles for Personal Water Craft Removal,"but it seems to have been taken down

 

[Bouba]

There is the shapings up of a conspiracy here...the world’s biggest nuisance, fishermen....along side the second biggest nuisance, yachties....complaining about the world’s third biggest nuisance, jetskis.....

 

[Chiara’s slave]

And a heat seeking missile. There used to be a how to on one of the Hobie cat forums on "using AIM-9 Missiles for Personal Water Craft Removal,"but it seems to have been taken down

The Hobie 16 is a bit small for it, but us bigger multis can clear a 25ft wide path for other yachties, or mobos to navigate, fishing line free. PWCs tend to give us a wide berth too.

 

[Wansworth]

There is the shapings up of a conspiracy here...the world’s biggest nuisance, fishermen....along side the second biggest nuisance, yachties....complaining about the world’s third biggest nuisance, jetskis.....

Masterminded from the south of France

 

[Refueler]

And a heat seeking missile. There used to be a how to on one of the Hobie cat forums on "using AIM-9 Missiles for Personal Water Craft Removal,"but it seems to have been taken down

I know a guy who got so fed up with Jetskis and various annoying PWC - that he took action ... I strongly recc'd not to do same ... but he reckoned he'd reported so often and nothing had been done ....

Short lengths of rope in the water 'placed strategically' when the PWC's were active.

 

[xyachtdave]

I believe one of the local launch sites owned by a club by Kingsferry Bridge has cancelled around a 100 jet ski memberships at a substantial financial loss to the club because of their poor behaviour and the aggro caused locally.

I guess any hobby popular with scaffolders lit up on cocaine could be problematic.

 

[oilybilge]

I believe one of the local launch sites owned by a club by Kingsferry Bridge has cancelled around a 100 jet ski memberships at a substantial financial loss to the club because of their poor behaviour and the aggro caused locally.

Interesting. I was at Queenborough this weekend and was surprised at how peaceful it was ….

 

[Boathook]

I believe one of the local launch sites owned by a club by Kingsferry Bridge has cancelled around a 100 jet ski memberships at a substantial financial loss to the club because of their poor behaviour and the aggro caused locally.

I guess any hobby popular with scaffolders lit up on cocaine could be problematic.

To many of them to be scaffolders !

 

[fredrussell]

There was a Jetski being used in by one of the houseboat owners at Pin Mill on the Orwell. It’s normally a very quiet area and the last place you would expect to see one. It’s still a very quiet area as after a couple of weeks a local put something in the jetski’s petrol tank and that was the end of that. It’s now decomposing quietly in Webb’s boatyard.

 

[xyachtdave]

To many of them to be scaffolders !

Well a couple of weeks ago an eBay special speedboat piloted with more enthusiasm than consideration for speed limits etc arrived back at Queenborough all tide landing courtesy of the local lifeboat.

It was late in the day and the occupants had to basically run off and abandon the boat as they were out of prison on early release with an ankle tag and a 7pm curfew.

There’s all sorts out and about!

 

[Ian_Edwards]

One of my daughter and her family live on the shores of Fisherman Bay, an arm of Port Hacking, the next inlet south of Sydney Harbour. The family have an old Cousair sailing dinghy (16ft) and a Castle 650 (21'6") a small cruiser racer.
I often go to stay in UK winter and potter about with my grandchildren in Port Hacking.
At the weekends the jetski traffic in Port Hacking is relentless. It's more or less impossible to sail.
Some of the jet skis have a top speed of over 100kpm.
The drivers seem to have no knowledge of the rules of the road. This results in multiple jet skis traveling at 60kmp plus driving straight at each other with no rules. Contact speeds could be as high as 200kpm. No crash helms and a limited use of life jackets.
I think that it's only a matter of time before there a fatality.
If drivers behaved like that on the NSW roads it wouldn't be long before they were banned from driving.
I've also seen jet skies being driven in tiny circles close to bathing beaches, Bonnie Vale and Gibbon beaches.
Personally, I would mandate that jet skies must carry AIS class B transponders. That way the harbour police could track the speed and location of jetskis, and automatically issue fines to offending owners.
In the Scottish summers I sail around the Inner and Outer Hebrides and rarely see another yacht, let a lone a jetski.

 

[Alicatt]

Years ago now a friend who owned a Dutch Botter was taken to court as he had been clocked by the police exceeding the speed limit off Itchenor o his Botter

At least here you have to have a licence for a jetski and the PWC has to be registered, so anti social behaviour can be tracked back to the offender, mind you you can use a 15m boat that can do less than 20km/h without a licence, but the boat still has to be registered.

We are timed between lock gates here, or if you have AIS then that is used to monitor your speed, hefty fines have been incurred by some. Our boat is limited by the wash she makes not the speed of the canal, which varies

I find it funny that our local waterways representative is the the one that gets stopped by the water police almost every time he goes out, rest of us just get a wave as they drive past

AIS is compulsory on a commercial ship on our inland waterways, however a good number seem to have them switched off when traveling along the canals where they can put the speed up a bit...

The govt. here is bringing in more regulation and making AIS + VHF the optimal way for traveling the canals.
From 1st Jan 2026 for pleasure boats you will have to use either AIS + VHF or the new Waterways App which is getting released on 1st Jan, which will then become compulsory on 1st April 2026 to use the locks and bridges. Had an email from the Waterways about it last week.

 

[Boathook]

Need to bring in a rule / law about turning AIS off when moored or possibly even anchored. Especially for the Solent area !