Unbelievable

the height of muppetry

I do feel for the Solent ferry captains, they have to put up with an awful lot without jet skis throwing themselves at them! I remember reading once they travel around 1/4 million nautical miles per year going between Southampton and Cowes!
 
I struggled to understand the comment that the jetskier might have been prevented from seeing the redjet owing to the sun being in his eyes when the redjet seems to have been proceeding down Southampton Water in a southerly direction at around midday when the sun was probably not in the north (as, indeed, confirmed by the shadows in the pix).

Still, glad no-one seriously hurt and it's great to see the professionalism of the ship in picking up the victim (of his own misadventure, perhaps?). I suspect the reportage that the skipper 'went back to have a word' with the jetskier is, to use a technical term, utter cobblers.
 
I wondered if it was another "jetskis do not steer when the throttle is closed" issue? I feel the jetskier was watching the ferry in order to come back across the wake. He saw the RedJet late and killed his throttle and then had no steering. I have never jetskied but feel it must be an unnatural action to add power to steer out of trouble rather than remove power.
 
We have had jetskis coming extremely close to our boat at speed when anchored. I ended up yelling at one because he came so close to crossing over my fishing line. Twat.
 
I had a incident where a jet skier with a passenger onboard came flying out from the shore like a crazed Exocet, darting all over the place but in my general direction when I was underway heading south down the middle of Loch Lomond.

At first I thought "OK it's going to go in front of me" so I slowed down, but then they altered course to my stern so I speeded up to avoid a collision. Then it headed directly for me, then off to my bow....It didn't matter what I did it kept on homing in on me - eventually I had to do a crash stop when it nearly broadsided me with it doing full throttle and then it did a 180° turn and darted off into the distance.

I called in the Loch Lomond Rangers patrol boat on VHF who had a word with the driver.

The response was that the driver (a young lady) didn't even see me; the passenger on the back (and I suspect the owner) certainly did see me judging by the panicked look on his face as he flew past us by no more than a couple of feet away at 35knts.

We were the only boat on the Loch in a 12 range and it still managed to find us!

Ever since then I've been extremely wary of them and give a wide berth where possible.
 
They're like wasps, unpredictable, hurt when they hit you and make an annoying noise.

Neither use nor ornament.

Humph
 
yes indeed. natural selection has failed to reduce the jetski population so far though!

having had several goes on them I can see the attraction - they're great fun but a lot of riders definitely imagine that everyone on boats really enjoy their displays.
Once was buzzed relentlessly at anchor in an otherwise very peaceful bay for a good half hour, after which the rider had the cheek to come alongside and ask if I could give him some duct tape to fix his loose throttle grip. No idea at all that he had been a total pain in the a*se! I gave him some on condition he exited stage left!
 
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