Yacht Skipper accused obstructing warship

lyc

lyc

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A Plymouth yacht skipper has appeared in court charged with getting his boat in the way of a Devonport frigate and failing to comply with a direction by MoD police on board a launch!!

News item here
 
It can sometimes get quite tricky. I was crossing the area south of Drake's Island when a frigate following the main channel called me to say he was turning towards me and would I move out of the way. It wasn't clear exactly where he intended to go and Modplod wasn't around so I tried to head out of the area ASAP but I was aware that if he turned a bit wider I could be moving into his path. I'd be interested to know what went on in this guy's discussions with Modplod.
 
snowleopard said:
It can sometimes get quite tricky.
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Tell me about it. Last autumn I was trying to head westwards south of Drakes Island when the RN Grand Fleet (well 3 ships) was returning home. They came at me line astern and each time I thought I had a gap the following ship opened its throttle to max for a few minutes.

Does anyone know why the RN hit the peddle for a couple of minutes a few miles from home, clearing carbon deposits in the cylinder linings?
 
jonjo said:
Tell me about it. Last autumn I was trying to head westwards south of Drakes Island when the RN Grand Fleet (well 3 ships) was returning home. They came at me line astern and each time I thought I had a gap the following ship opened its throttle to max for a few minutes.

Does anyone know why the RN hit the peddle for a couple of minutes a few miles from home, clearing carbon deposits in the cylinder linings?
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The ship's were probably doing a co-ordinated entry into harbour. The navigating officers would have been trying to keep station an exact distance from the vessel in front. The whole thing is co-ordinated by one ship where the poor bridge team are frantically conning their own ship as well as giving instructions to the others - or something like that.

There's no requirement or standard practice to open the throttles a few miles from home - unless you are behind the bubble time and need to catch up...

What yachtsmen often don't realise is that when the ship says it will be at the breakwater at 1300 it means that it will trying to be at the breakwater at 1300. Not 1259 or 1301!

Sounds as though the first ship got out of position and so all the others had to put a spurt on to get back into position as well. Of perhaps there was an instruction that at such and such a point ships will maintain station at 1000 metre spacing instead of 1500 metre specing or some such thing?

There is usually a reason why warships do things - its not always obvious to the yachtsmen what is happening.

Its no secret that there are 'pretend charts' of Plymouth which ships sometimes use where extra rocks have been drawn in to make life interesting for the trainee navigators of her majestys finest.

When doing a yachtmester exam, I have been know to draw a few extra hazzards on the chart for someone who seems to know the waters too well.
 
Until we hear the full story it is very difficult to take sides, it could be a numpty yachtsman, it could be an over officious modplod, time will tell
 
It's a brave skipper who doesn't do what the MOD police ask :eek:
When they arrive alongside in a blast of spray I tend to do exactly what the men in black with the machine guns ask :D
They have always been polite with me so far.
 
Its very common in the tamar, and often a lack of space, but there really is no excuse for getting in the way, they are not hard to spot. I wonder what the charge will be, a fine no doubt.

I was in Cawsand bay during the summer in my 30ft fishing boat, there was a Frig in the bay too, i think it was war tuesday actually, as we were heading across the mouth of the bay towards penlee it decided it wanted to leave the bay, as there was a huge amount of space, i held speed and course not knowing his intentions. I dont think the skipper was happy with this as he headed directly for us, not a word on the vhf.

As he approached it became obvious he wanted to go ahead not to our stern, so i stopped. He then decided a few hundred yards away to go full steam, must have been doing 20 + knots as he left the bay, as he passed he was no more than 100 meters away, and gave us the biggest wake to contend with. This was scary enough, within 5 mins we had 3 ribs and a police launch heading at us.

I thought this is it, im done for now, but the guys were amazingly calm and pleasant about it. They could tell we ment no harm. Our boat was known in the river and we always comply with any instructions we are given when entering/leaving the river.

I bet this guy either thought he knew better or was not known to the authorities. My point being they are always pretty reasonable in my opinion so maybe he was being a bit of a nob?

Will be interesting to see the outcome, or how much he has to pay!
 
Q "As he approached it became obvious he wanted to go ahead not to our stern, so i stopped. He then decided a few hundred yards away to go full steam, must have been doing 20 + knots as he left the bay, as he passed he was no more than 100 meters away, and gave us the biggest wake to contend with. This was scary enough, within 5 mins we had 3 ribs and a police launch heading at us".
.......................................................................................................

I'm a bit concerned that the Naval boats are not serving us.... jo public, but are a bit of a force all on their own forgetting why they are in existance.
Surely aggressive actions in confined waters where there are civilian craft is totally out of order, or am I more than a little naive?
 
monkfish24 said:
oh believe me, you will not have known obnoxiousness until you have met some of the worst naval officer!
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But in fairness, there are a fair few who are fantastic too...

I had the pleasure tuesday evening of spending a couple of hours in the company of a Commander, who couldn't have been more pleasant if he'd tried. He spent a lot of time talking to the kids about his role, life in the navy and equally as much about their interests and sailing activity. An absolute Gentleman.
 
Morgana said:
But in fairness, there are a fair few who are fantastic too...

I had the pleasure tuesday evening of spending a couple of hours in the company of a Commander, who couldn't have been more pleasant if he'd tried. He spent a lot of time talking to the kids about his role, life in the navy and equally as much about their interests and sailing activity. An absolute Gentleman.
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oh no i agree, (i'm in the navy so i suppose i have to!) some officers are spot on at thier job and make the best civilian manager look bad. It's normal in any walk of life that when you get a bad one, they are just that.
 
I think the phrase in the article "...he had been sailing 'his whole life' including five years in Plymouth..." probably speaks volumes!
 
Evasive action.

two incidences I can recall:-
1) Me coming South through the Narrows , Frigate hidden behind the biscuit factory suddenly appears going like chuff. Plod comes over to me , I gun the engine flat out and sort of headed into Barn Pool as fast as I could. Then I let my heart slow down.
2) Out of Mayflower marina , North end , singlehanded. Put the autohelm on to raise the sails , heading roughly towards the narrows again. Looked upriver , bit misty , saw nothing in particular. As you know when you are lifting sails etc. you live in your own little world for a minute or two. Next thing I knew the MOD Rib was alongside ,demanding I get out of the way. I had failed to spot a sub coming out of the river in the mist.
I had to turn away from the wind with the sails half up and then of course unable to raise or lower easily cos of wind pressure. getting very close to the biscuit factory by the time they had got out of the way.

having said all this they are always very polite but it is clear who is the boss.

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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