Yacht Skipper accused obstructing warship

Gosh, how lucky I am up here not to be bothered with any "Grey Funnel Line" ships. Or much else for that matter. The one and only time I've seen a GFL ship was last year near Helmsdale -

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He crossed my bow going very slow, then turned to port and passed down my port side still going slowly. No call on VHF or anything. I just held my course and speed.

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Not much recent experience in Uk, but, with very few exceptions, found that if you are non officious to them, you get the same in return. Got to remember that now they are very nervous about odd craft coming close. USS Vienciennes(sp) and Cole anybody?
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Rowana said:
Gosh, how lucky I am up here not to be bothered with any "Grey Funnel Line" ships. Or much else for that matter. The one and only time I've seen a GFL ship was last year near Helmsdale -

DSCN0128.jpg


He crossed my bow going very slow, then turned to port and passed down my port side still going slowly. No call on VHF or anything. I just held my course and speed.

DSCN0133.jpg
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That's not a Royal Naval Ship

I am interested in your comment "He didn't try to call me on VHF". Why should he?
 
jakeroyd said:
Having said all that i am sure the police launches (the ones with the checkered sides) aim right for me sometimes.
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You are 100% right, doesnt matter if your in a RIB, Yacht or fishing boat, they like to head for you, one even had the audacity to not give us right of way at the Tamar bridge end, we were under full sail, trying to hack up the river, making maybe a few hundred yards each tack, and he sat right in the middle of the river without even thinking about giving way to us.

I wasn't too bothered but you can tell the thought never even crossed his mind!
 
"Magistrates were told that the vessel was crossing about 700 metres ahead of the warship."

700 metres? From my own experience of Close Encounters in the Tamar and Plymouth Sound, that sounds like quite a big distance. He must of *really* pissed off the guys in the MoD launch/RIB to get prosecuted.
 
I've been asked by mod plod to change course for a frigate doing ASW exercises and just to be nasty ignored the call but called directly 'Warship to the east" until they reluctantly answered, I then did as they asked. Childish but fun.

I was also stopped off the northern Irish coast by two RIB's loaded with serious looking blokes in black dry suits( and a happy sniffer dog -without dry suit) all totting automatic weapons..No cheeky-ness this time as one guy had a machine gun on a bi-pod trained on us while the very pleasant interrogator asked us where we were from and where we were going and why we'd ignored their repeated calls...

" Duuuh- cos the radio is down below and I don't have a licence for it so it stays switched off until we start sinking..." He laughed and cleared off....
 
john_morris_uk said:
That's not a Royal Naval Ship

I am interested in your comment "He didn't try to call me on VHF". Why should he?
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As far as I'm aware, it is a RN ship of the fishery protection squadron, or have these been "farmed out" now?

No reason whatsoever to call me, but he did cross my bow going very slowly, then turned to port to come down reasonably close to my port side (2nd photo), so it was fairly obvious that he was "interested" in me. Perhaps he was just bored, since there was not another ship to be seen for most of the day.
 
jakeroyd said:
Having said all that i am sure the police launches (the ones with the checkered sides) aim right for me sometimes.
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Ha ha - we know the feeling, almost every time we go up the Tamar, the same kind of thing happens.

My daughter (aged five at the time) noticed this, and asked why. We just happen to keep and/or foster quite a few dogs, so my wife explained "Well, you know how our dogs like to rush up to you, to have a sniff and see what your doing, or if you want to play?" .... "Yes" ... "Well, the police launches are like sheep dogs on the river and they like to see what stray boats are doing, or if they need rounding up"

I thought it was an excellent explanation for the world as a five yr old understands it.
 
Rowana said:
As far as I'm aware, it is a RN ship of the fishery protection squadron, or have these been "farmed out" now?

No reason whatsoever to call me, but he did cross my bow going very slowly, then turned to port to come down reasonably close to my port side (2nd photo), so it was fairly obvious that he was "interested" in me. Perhaps he was just bored, since there was not another ship to be seen for most of the day.
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That reminds me of a time when my brother and I were sailing back into Plymouth from France. We'd had the spinnaker up, but weren't giving it enough attention, and it wrapped tight round the forestay. We were both on the foredeck swearing at each other about who's fault it was while we tried to untangle it. Then we noticed the Customs cutter circling slowly round us, obviously wondering what on earth we were up to, because we certainly didn't look like competent sailors (blush) Fortunately we got it sorted, and waved at them "Hello Mr Nice Customs Men" and all was well.
 
Boreades said:
"Magistrates were told that the vessel was crossing about 700 metres ahead of the warship."

700 metres? From my own experience of Close Encounters in the Tamar and Plymouth Sound, that sounds like quite a big distance. He must of *really* pissed off the guys in the MoD launch/RIB to get prosecuted.
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But what offence has he committed? Is it aledged that he has he come within a 500 meter limit? It is not clear if he (the defendant) says that he was 700yds away or if that is what they allege. My feeling is that the 700yds is his defence i.e. not a close encounter.

Terrible reporting.
 
Rowana said:
As far as I'm aware, it is a RN ship of the fishery protection squadron, or have these been "farmed out" now?

No reason whatsoever to call me, but he did cross my bow going very slowly, then turned to port to come down reasonably close to my port side (2nd photo), so it was fairly obvious that he was "interested" in me. Perhaps he was just bored, since there was not another ship to be seen for most of the day.
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It has been farmed out north of the border - start of the Scottish Navy?
 
Rowana said:
As far as I'm aware, it is a RN ship of the fishery protection squadron, or have these been "farmed out" now?

No reason whatsoever to call me, but he did cross my bow going very slowly, then turned to port to come down reasonably close to my port side (2nd photo), so it was fairly obvious that he was "interested" in me. Perhaps he was just bored, since there was not another ship to be seen for most of the day.
Click to expand...
Its not RN. They used to belong to the Navy but were sold to Scottish Fisheries Protection. No reason to suggest that the professionalism of the crew is any the less. Who knows what he was doing - he might have been bored and came to have a look at you - as you suggested.
 
uxb said:
I've been asked by mod plod to change course for a frigate doing ASW exercises and just to be nasty ignored the call but called directly 'Warship to the east" until they reluctantly answered, I then did as they asked. Childish but fun.

I was also stopped off the northern Irish coast by two RIB's loaded with serious looking blokes in black dry suits( and a happy sniffer dog -without dry suit) all totting automatic weapons..No cheeky-ness this time as one guy had a machine gun on a bi-pod trained on us while the very pleasant interrogator asked us where we were from and where we were going and why we'd ignored their repeated calls...

" Duuuh- cos the radio is down below and I don't have a licence for it so it stays switched off until we start sinking..." He laughed and cleared off....
Click to expand...

1. Why would you want to wind up the mod plod and the warship? Perhaps I am too much of a compliant and law abiding citizen, but I utterly fail to see why you would want to play games with the warship and the modplod in this way.

2. What wouldn't you want to have a licence for the radio? They are free, and even when we had to pay for them it was about the least expensive thing for the boat in the annual budget.

See compliant and law abiding comments above I suppose. Its a free country, but as I work with the people who you annoyed and perhaps its easy for me to to see the other side.

Our navigator has a very low opinion of most yachtsmen; fortunately our captain is a sailor and so some sort of balance is restored.
 
john_morris_uk said:
Its not RN. They used to belong to the Navy but were sold to Scottish Fisheries Protection. No reason to suggest that the professionalism of the crew is any the less. Who knows what he was doing - he might have been bored and came to have a look at you - as you suggested.
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I used to love you shows on the telly
 
Hermit said:
It has been farmed out north of the border - start of the Scottish Navy?
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That's all we need!

Admiral of the Fleet, First Sea Lord Alex Salmond ! !

I despair ! !

Would you mind terribly if I emigrated south of the border?

As you can probably gather, I'm no fan of the Scottish Government and voted against devolution!
 
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