TV coverage of the Thames Pageant, what did you think?

[Dave_Seager]

The BBC's problem was not just about the "minority interest" of boating. They made a similar hash of their coverage of the Service of Thanksgiving on Tuesday. Instead of showing the procession to St Paul's they kept cutting away to irrelevant interviews rather than allow us to watch the spectacle.

 

[kimhollamby]

Having got home now and seen some of the coverage Michelle and I did wonder why the old BBC format of a running commentary with the cameras tracking the action would not have worked. Having researched some pic captions tonight there was certainly a story to be told for many boats and more than enough of us signed the Data Protection release.

I'm sure they would have never kept everyone happy, the scale of the whole day was just too vast, but better commentary on the participants up and down the fleet would have been great and relatively easy to do, given we all conformed to the markings required for TV recognition.

We were really lucky, both to take part and to get a couple of shots of Formanda on the coverage.

Some of the bits like the item covering safety checks almost came close to bringing a flavour of the real story behind the scenes (all that prep - it must have been millions of man hours across the whole fleet) but it could have gone some way more for sure.

Organisers, PLA et al were truly excellent in my view - apparently an approach is being made to BBC to see if there is any chance of releasing more footage. Hopefully it's all on hard disks somewhere.

 

[treemendos]

bbc coverage

I have allready asked the bbc to put another programme together using an experienced boat commentor to include the stories behind the boats.
Re the PLA doing a good job.
you obviously were not in an open boat.
many of those who were had to be taken off by the RNLI for treatment of hypothermia .
Out of the six crew members on our boat,three were evacuated even though we were wearing adequate foul weather gear. in my case i was using Gill sailing jacket and salopettes . The jacket failed and once I handed over the helm because My back was hurting me so much. I had to lay down . that was when I just got so cold I became disoriented . the thames water felt very warm when I immersed my hand.It felt as warm as a bath.
Did you not see the fleet of ambulances on the dock. it turned out to be a major incident with so many suffering from the wet/ cold.
Most of these casualties may not have been taken ill of the PLA had let all the open boats into the first lockin and not just the cabin boats.
At the Friday night briefing we had managed to get the pla to agree to let our open boat with disabled crew members aboard to use the first lockin . on the day they subsquently did not honour their word.
I certainly do not think they organised it at all well in that respect.
They took no account for the atrocious weather even though it was forecast.
They have since said it was the worst weather for 50 years.
Thats no excuse.
The cabin boats could have stayed on the water longer to let the open boats in surely as they probably had heaters,kettels,blankets ect aboard .

 

[oldgit]

[The cabin boats could have stayed on the water longer to let the open boats in surely as they probably had heaters,kettels,blankets ect aboard .[/QUOTE]


More or less the same problem after one of the practices finishing in West India Dock.
All the faster bigger more seaworthy boats went in on the first lock, leaving all the poor buggers in 20hp narrowboats bouncing around outside attempting to stem the fast ebbing tide for an hour..

 

[Gavi]

[The cabin boats could have stayed on the water longer to let the open boats in surely as they probably had heaters,kettels,blankets ect aboard .

More or less the same problem after one of the practices finishing in West India Dock.
All the faster bigger more seaworthy boats went in on the first lock, leaving all the poor buggers in 20hp narrowboats bouncing around outside attempting to stem the fast ebbing tide for an hour..[/QUOTE]

Yup, we were amongst that group and it was very uncomfortable. It made one crew member quite ill. I really feel for anyone in an open boat having to do the same. I hope people have recovered ok.

 

[oldgit]

Have always wondered if the folks organising this stuff ever started out with a small open boat or just jumped that tedious bit and went straight to a 50 ft Broom.

 

[kimhollamby]

I'm really sorry you had problems but I'm not going to apologise about praising the PLA for its overall performance. For example they were all over the Clippers like a rash when they started to overtake the rear end of the leisure fleet.

When we read the briefing notes we expected there to be a long, long wait at West India.

When we saw the forecast we expected there to be some truly foul weather.

We prepped for the day exactly as we would have done if running solo.

It should really have been the same expectation for everyone, the weather was very well forecast with Met Office red warnings and the quantity of boat movements also very well documented.

Easy for us to say, because we were on the kind of boat you describe with everything on board

In fact I really didn't expect to be in until 2100 or later (which turned out to be pessimistic) because, having read the notes I figured out for myself it was a tough ask managing too many boats into too little space.

I would have quite happily gone in after the narrowboats too - although we were directed in the third lock and managed to push up to get some decent space at rear of lock to accommodate what was hopefully a great many of them. The Recreational Motorboat Fleet really stuffed their hulls into every spare inch of space to achieve this.

I cannot imagine you were later than the third lock and if you were I'm not sure where you were on the river or why you didn't get in. I did hear something about them not holding the first lock, sorry I wasn't close enough to see or understand why. A shame too we didn't connect up because we would have willingly taken you onboard and your boat alongside.

What I heard on Ch14 and Ch77 was some small craft in difficulty being asked to declare as such and if they declared an emergency (delirious sounds pretty close to that) being offered immediate emergency assistance. I also saw the larger motorboats letting the smaller craft through. I really hope you didn't get blocked because that would have been a silly end to a great day.

What I also saw was the PLA needed to build in some breathing space to sort out some immediate congestion earlier on and they sensibly took us off on a holding circuit to accomplish that, a good call in my book.

Again, very easy for me to say from my nice warm helm and I don't want to pick a fight but really there has to be a point where everyone takes responsibility when they choose to participate, to ensure they are equipped for the likely conditions and to ensure they act as required if they hit issues or delays.

And just in case my understanding of exposure in small craft be any doubt, the first decade or so of my boating was spent in boats measuring just a few feet stem to stern, in times where the boating kit was way inferior to today.

 

[kimhollamby]

I've just checked log for last year (if we are talking Thames Festival?) and it looks like we had a circa 30min wait for lock - I cannot remember beyond that as to whether than meant lock 2 for us but agree with the Barrier open particularly it would make sense to get the narrowboats off the tideway.

 

[jecuk]

you obviously were not in an open boat.
many of those who were had to be taken off by the RNLI for treatment of hypothermia .
Out of the six crew members on our boat,three were evacuated even though we were wearing adequate foul weather gear. in my case i was using Gill sailing jacket and salopettes .

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. In those condition we all have to redefine adequate foul weather gear I suppose. I do think there was a bit of chaos after the pageant but overall I think that was caused more by certain participants deciding it was a free for all rather than the PLA.

Can I ask though, if you were in such difficulty did you call for assistance?

 

[Gavi]

I've just checked log for last year (if we are talking Thames Festival?) and it looks like we had a circa 30min wait for lock - I cannot remember beyond that as to whether than meant lock 2 for us but agree with the Barrier open particularly it would make sense to get the narrowboats off the tideway.

It is a tricky one, isn't it. The MBs do as instructed and would be wrong not to do so. You watch others in discomfort yet need to do the right thing and, again, that is to follow instructions. I don't think one can win or lose this one.

I remain sorry that those in open boats suffered. A friend was meant to be in a skiff but could not do it.... and he was so glad.

 

[kimhollamby]

The Canute factor

I remain sorry that those in open boats suffered. A friend was meant to be in a skiff but could not do it.... and he was so glad.

Agreed - but it is also a bit like those 'hero' singers on the London Philharmonic boat at the end is it not? Made great TV but who on earth expected them to be anything other than very wet and cold at the end of their stint - in interviews afterwards they admitted they were wet before they even started singing and they didn't even have spare clothing.

The only surprise really was that the rain held off for as long as it did. Wearing black concert wear was never going to push it back.

Thinking about this some more perhaps the weather should have been emphasised more heavily at the briefing - it might have spooked a few but better that than problems later.

 

[Richard Shead]

Anyhow Kim I waved and you did not wave back ... I was by the Buddha at Battersea did you not see me ??

 

[kimhollamby]

Anyhow Kim I waved and you did not wave back ... I was by the Buddha at Battersea did you not see me ??

Sorry about the wave, but we did blow our horns and we did take your picture

 

[TrueBlue]

Looking in from the outside (a non participant) -

BBC coverage
Nobody has pointed out that in such an event - gaps between classes of participants - there needs to be provision for "fill ins". What happened was that the fill ins were either given a time slot - they should have been on an "as and when basis" OR the personalities pushed to be on air?

In the glory days of OB - remember that the BBC pioneered outside broadcasts and threw a lot of resource at it - coverage was up to the limit of what large resources they had.
Now the BEEB has been cut back, not only that but whatever kit they had had to be spread over all the London locations needed for the weekend. I t takes time to move kit around.

Long serving staff has been 'let go' and the focus has been moved to Manchester - perhaps all the expertise in water borne OB's has been lost. Certainly what was shown and when indicates this.

Event management
This was a huge undertaking (constantly being reminded of the magnitude) and mostly by volunteers. I looked at what little information was available when participation was invited and I took the view that folks would be left to their own devices other than being marshalled before and during the cavalcade.
Given that resources were stretched I am surprised that modern communications were not used more to communicate on a regular basis - from the outside I couldn't see much evidence.

It's a huge shame that a magnificent spectacle should have been defeated (?) by the weather and poorly judged broadcasting programming.

 

[kimhollamby]

Looking in from the outside (a non participant) -

I took the view that folks would be left to their own devices other than being marshalled before and during the cavalcade.
Given that resources were stretched I am surprised that modern communications were not used more to communicate on a regular basis - from the outside I couldn't see much evidence.

It's a huge shame that a magnificent spectacle should have been defeated (?) by the weather and poorly judged broadcasting programming.

For what it's worth I don't think the event was defeated. Theoretically at least it was held in honour of HM and she most certainly stayed right to the very end, on her feet, so you could argue it met its primary purpose.

Second I know a load of people that attended on the day and they all seem pretty happy despite being as wet ashore as we were on the water.

The BBC's somewhat arrogant riposte in relation to criticism of lack of coverage of the special music, that participants had no reasonable expectation of coverage, was of course right. So the bigger miss here really is that those that couldn't be there didn't get the full feel of the buzz of the day.

In terms of comms we received a weekly newsletter and I had enough paperwork to fill two A4 folders in the end so I think that was okay too and the mustering was tightly controlled. There was a lock plan for the end too but anyone that has run events like this knows you are often better off dealing with boat arrivals ad hoc as just one delay or hesitation from one scheduled boat can have horrid knock-ons.

Not sure why I have suddenly cast myself in the mould of chief defendant of QDJP and PLA (other than perhaps justifying 860 miles steaming and a lot of work) but everyone on our boat would not have missed it for the world and the day for us was made that much more special by having celebrated our Silver Wedding anniversary at the commencement of events and by being lucky enough to have all our parents to share it with us.

Think I'd better stop there

 

[TrueBlue]

For what it's worth I don't think the event was defeated.

My bad, sorry - I didn't mean defeated; I should have said spoilt for those who were forced (!) to watch it on TV.

 

[treemendos]

pageant clothing

I am an RYA dinghy instructor with over 30 years experience of owning a R.I.B of various makes and lengths,so well used to being an open boat.
I was wearing Gill waterproof clothing that unbenown to me had leaked and only became noticed when I had to lay down after managing to helm our boat up and back down to west india dock after my back was hurting me so much.
I am disabled with it but managed with the help of pain killers to stay the course for so long.
I also had a complete change of clothes in a dry bag.
Unfortunateley I was evacuated off as being diagnosed with hypothermia.
One of the side effects is not knowing what to do yourself for your own good.
If I had realised I was completly wet through I could have probably gt changed or let the clothes to one of the other two crew members on our boat who also had to rescued off by the rnli.
i understand there were 49 people who were also rescued off boats and hundreds of people off the banks whi had to recieve medical attention.
I did see quite a few people in open boats and cabin boats who did not have proper sailing gear on and I cannt imajine how they managed or not .
i certainly did not set out to be evacuated.
We had spent six months preparing for the event making sure we had self heating meals and plenty of flasks for hot water.
Again the mind does not react correctly when the body is so cold .
With hindsight one should have known things were not right when I felt the thames and it felt as hot as a very warm bath. I was not on my own as everyone on our boat felt the water and agreed it was warm. Shows we were all being overcome by the cold so it was difficult for anyone to make proper decisions.
I can only thank the organisers for allowing the RNLI get us off and to the RNLI for their help plus the ambulance service who were kept very busy. The one that we travelled in had come from Yorkshire . I hasten to add it was already in London .
it is obviously very difficult for the authorities to try to organise civilians into any semblence of order without appearing to be too heavy handed.
I am the first to congratulate them for their efforts but would just like to point out their shortcomings in not preparing for such weather. As you say it was widely reported to be so bad and as such should not have come as any surprise.
here endeth the lesson.
till the next time.
Just hope the BBC broadcast a programme soon ,with most / all of the boats being displayed and commented on.
Regards geoff

 

[dharl]

yes I hope BBC broadcast a program soon with better highlights and better commentry!

We where a Pace boat just inforunt of the ex Lifeboats and Fireboat Squadron. With us we also had two smaller RIBs and by the time that we had passed Tower Bridge the poor guys in the RIBS where suffering bad so we made sure that we passed them hot sweet tea. I can only imagine what the guys in the open boats where like after that time.

 

[SnowCat]

Probably close to hypothermic!

 

[oldgit]

"Regards geoff"


Well done,if its any consolation,the man powered fleet stole the show anyway and after reading your post would just like to say you done the day proud.