Sea Devil
Well-known member
THE NANNY STATE.
Of course there is an element of risk going sailing – tiny round the bouys on a sunny afternoon – Greater in a gale close inshore. Sailing has since time immemorial had risks associated with it.
Today a shout on the radio, because you have a problem, will bring the RNLI to your side FREE OF CHARGE in a blink. _ In Spain, for example the coast guard will dispatch a commercial Tug for which you will have to pay – So you only call a tug if you are in a life threatening situation. The UK is unique I think in never requiring payment even for the most trivial of ‘shouts’. Has this created a nation of amateur sailors who are mainly not self sufficient?
OFCOM issues both VHF and SSB operators licences after you have completed a very expensive and in the case of the HF licence, mostly irrelevant course, only conducted by a very few radio schools, for fees that make the buying of the set look cheap!
Anyone prepared to spend the money buying a set is probably going to find instruction on how to use it I think.
The requirement for all these courses is based on safety – but why? We all operate our boats without licence and when we begin we either learn by experience – get so scared we never sail again – learn from more experience people or take as much of the various NON OBLIGITORY courses run mainly by the RYA as we think useful.
Can live with OFCom needing to raise funds to run its operations by requiring an annual licence for the sets.. Somebody has to do the incredibly boring job of allocating radio wavelengths et al - But why do they have to invent obligatory courses, costing huge amounts of money to operate a piece of equipment no more complex that a mobile phone?
Of course there have to be rules and some punishments if you don’t obey them but that goes with sailing – if you don’t know who gives way to whom or what the speed limit in a port area is then you will get fined or a dirty great insurance claim – rightly so.
Any body agree?
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.michaelbriant.com/sailing>http://www.michaelbriant.com/sailing</A>
Of course there is an element of risk going sailing – tiny round the bouys on a sunny afternoon – Greater in a gale close inshore. Sailing has since time immemorial had risks associated with it.
Today a shout on the radio, because you have a problem, will bring the RNLI to your side FREE OF CHARGE in a blink. _ In Spain, for example the coast guard will dispatch a commercial Tug for which you will have to pay – So you only call a tug if you are in a life threatening situation. The UK is unique I think in never requiring payment even for the most trivial of ‘shouts’. Has this created a nation of amateur sailors who are mainly not self sufficient?
OFCOM issues both VHF and SSB operators licences after you have completed a very expensive and in the case of the HF licence, mostly irrelevant course, only conducted by a very few radio schools, for fees that make the buying of the set look cheap!
Anyone prepared to spend the money buying a set is probably going to find instruction on how to use it I think.
The requirement for all these courses is based on safety – but why? We all operate our boats without licence and when we begin we either learn by experience – get so scared we never sail again – learn from more experience people or take as much of the various NON OBLIGITORY courses run mainly by the RYA as we think useful.
Can live with OFCom needing to raise funds to run its operations by requiring an annual licence for the sets.. Somebody has to do the incredibly boring job of allocating radio wavelengths et al - But why do they have to invent obligatory courses, costing huge amounts of money to operate a piece of equipment no more complex that a mobile phone?
Of course there have to be rules and some punishments if you don’t obey them but that goes with sailing – if you don’t know who gives way to whom or what the speed limit in a port area is then you will get fined or a dirty great insurance claim – rightly so.
Any body agree?
<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.michaelbriant.com/sailing>http://www.michaelbriant.com/sailing</A>
