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Not So Great Start To Season


Gretzky

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Just now, grendel said:

As i am sure do the majority of boaters - or at least as they would like to do, I dont suppose any of us can say we have never messed up, and its usually at just the wrong moment. but we should all at least try and respect other boats, and remember its never a bad thing to ask for assistance.

Of course everyone messes up at some point. The difference that experience brings though is knowing that something has gone amiss and that you have got it wrong and either aborting the attempt or doing something to put it right rather then just ploughing on regardless!

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The guy that hit us, was travelling at river speed, not attempting a mooring, he was not under any sort pressure or in a situation that required help, he was, or more to the point should have been just travelling down the river. The problem was the helm was too busy taking selfies instead of steering the boat, as such he hit us while were moored! Hire boat or private boat it doesn’t matter he was not keeping an adequate watch. The lesson here is if you are at the helm, that should be your primary focus.

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I was surprised how quiet the waterways seemed when we travelled last week, for long stretches we saw no other boats, probably down to the lovely weather! That said, come Saturday it seemed that it was a nutters paradise, speeding boats (not just hire ones) stag/hen parties with oafs diving into the water from the roofs of the boats, and many unable to take the helm without a bottle of alcohol in one of their hands!  We just stuck to the speed limits, and kept a careful watch out. 

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1 hour ago, twowrights said:

I was surprised how quiet the waterways seemed when we travelled last week, for long stretches we saw no other boats, probably down to the lovely weather! That said, come Saturday it seemed that it was a nutters paradise, speeding boats (not just hire ones) stag/hen parties with oafs diving into the water from the roofs of the boats, and many unable to take the helm without a bottle of alcohol in one of their hands!  We just stuck to the speed limits, and kept a careful watch out. 

When we hired a cruiser in Ireland a few years ago, the captain's manual made it clear that alcohol and being in control of a boat shouldn't mix.

On the other hand:

There was a form you could fill in to have the boat stocked with supplies before you arrived (very useful!). One page listed groceries. The other one was a long list of various types of alcoholic drink on offer.

I suppose the intention was that they were to be drunk once safely moored up for the night, but still...

 

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Oh dear, Here I go again, holding the torch for boozy boaters.

I am a great believer in insurance. Not just for 'just in case' but for other considerations as well. I would like to find an insurance actuary, and ask him about insurance payouts resulting from drunkenness at the helm. The number of injuries, deaths and major damage caused by skippers having taken alcohol and that their drunkenness was the cause.

I drink. I drink at the helm. I drink before taking the helm and I drink after my cruise has completed. I have never killed or injured anybody from doing this. Have I ever been drunk at the helm?  Yes I'm afraid to say I have, though that is very much a rarity.

People need to think about what it is they are trying to achieve when they say "no drinking whilst cruising, because if it's safety, then NOBODY on board should have a drink whilst the boats in motion.

If those in favour of such a ban really want to see that happen then say goodbye to the broads. It will die as a holiday destination.

Whilst drinking and boating may be perceived as being risky, I would like that perception supported by facts. The source of those facts being insurance companies rather than the hearsay of "My mates boat was hit 1500 times last year by drunks". 

I'm sorry about the rant, but the three things that come up time after time that really get my hackles up are Boozing skippers, Mandatory Co alarms and "Why isn't that person wearing a lifejacket".

It is allegedly a free country. I'm in favour of trying to keep it that way.  

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About half of fatal boating accidents in the US involve drugs or alcohol. 

One fatality is too many but one cap may not fit all. A rowing boat on the park pond, a Broads Cruiser with it's 45hp and a RIB with twin 350hp Yams on the transom require different degrees of concentration. And skill.

Screenshot_20190622-074151.thumb.png.09e967771c18f4da51793edfa6a6c27e.png

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Chris, Yes I too have read those statistics, but they include passengers, incidents where the craft was at anchor and so on and so forth. Also statistics such as (and I believe including) these are so often weighted to support an argument.

My point is not "How often is alcohol said to be to blame?" but "How often is the skipper's intake of alcohol actually to blame?"

As an example, if I were over the drink drive limit and I stopped at a junction, only to have a completely sober driver crash into the back of me, this would go down as a "drink related accident" even though drink as such played no part in the incident.

I feel the clips you allude to are similarly loaded to make the point.

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There were two articles in the EDP yesterday relating to intoxicated boaters. One incident took place at Horning where a young man fell off the back of a boat. Not a great problem, the only person endangered was himself. The second incident however involved a private boat with a number of intoxicated lads on speeding between Berney Arms and Brundall late on Saturday night. From what the reports have said, the helmsman had every intention of causing upset to other boats moored up. I think this latter incident is the sort of thing many of us fear, being caught up in something we can do nothing about. It is also sad that the emergency services have to be called out unnecessarily when they might be needed for a real emergency. I do hope they catch these guys. 

I remember one year being moored up at Boundary Farm after the Acle Regatta. A private boat was returning up the Bure late at night at quite a speed and being woken up by the boat rocking violently is not a very nice experience. (That was probably nothing to do with alcohol intake but it was scary nevertheless.) 

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from the facebook reports, the emergency services were following up to check on the river users disturbed by that cruiser, as one boat reported both its mooring lines broken - so not an unnecessary response at all, so they were checking everyone was alright. they did catch up with the culprits, but I do not know what action was taken.

as the Broads Authority pointed out on our facebook page, there is little point to just posting about it on social media, if you dont also report it to the authorities. - Broads Control on 01603 756056 or Broadsbeat on 999. which means the incident can officially be logged, and can receive attention much faster (as they dont necessarily monitor their facebook pages 24/7).

The sad thing is that these incidents are generally few and far between, but can saddle the whole broads with a bad reputation.

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18 minutes ago, grendel said:

from the facebook reports, the emergency services were following up to check on the river users disturbed by that cruiser, as one boat reported both its mooring lines broken - so not an unnecessary response at all, so they were checking everyone was alright. they did catch up with the culprits, but I do not know what action was taken.

as the Broads Authority pointed out on our facebook page, there is little point to just posting about it on social media, if you dont also report it to the authorities. - Broads Control on 01603 756056 or Broadsbeat on 999. which means the incident can officially be logged, and can receive attention much faster (as they dont necessarily monitor their facebook pages 24/7).

The sad thing is that these incidents are generally few and far between, but can saddle the whole broads with a bad reputation.

What I actually meant by using the word ‘unnecessarily’ was that it was the stupidity of these lads that necessitated the emergency call out rather than an accident or mishap. You are right when you say these incidents are few and far between and long may it remain so. Speeding in boats is nothing new but it does seem that this particular incident was due to too much alcohol causing the helm to endanger both his mates on board and other folk who thought they were safely moored up. Having said that, we only know what happened from social media and the EDP plus the report from Hemsby Lifeboat. No doubt, if the boat was identified and the culprit caught, we will know more in due course. 

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On 22/06/2019 at 07:23, MauriceMynah said:

Oh dear, Here I go again, holding the torch for boozy boaters.

I am a great believer in insurance. Not just for 'just in case' but for other considerations as well. I would like to find an insurance actuary, and ask him about insurance payouts resulting from drunkenness at the helm. The number of injuries, deaths and major damage caused by skippers having taken alcohol and that their drunkenness was the cause.

I drink. I drink at the helm. I drink before taking the helm and I drink after my cruise has completed. I have never killed or injured anybody from doing this. Have I ever been drunk at the helm?  Yes I'm afraid to say I have, though that is very much a rarity.

People need to think about what it is they are trying to achieve when they say "no drinking whilst cruising, because if it's safety, then NOBODY on board should have a drink whilst the boats in motion.

If those in favour of such a ban really want to see that happen then say goodbye to the broads. It will die as a holiday destination.

Whilst drinking and boating may be perceived as being risky, I would like that perception supported by facts. The source of those facts being insurance companies rather than the hearsay of "My mates boat was hit 1500 times last year by drunks". 

I'm sorry about the rant, but the three things that come up time after time that really get my hackles up are Boozing skippers, Mandatory Co alarms and "Why isn't that person wearing a lifejacket".

It is allegedly a free country. I'm in favour of trying to keep it that way.  

Fully agree with this. We enjoy a drink or two while we are cruising down the rivers and have no intention of stopping doing so. There is a massive difference between being sensible and having a couple of drinks while enjoying watching the world go by and getting completely wasted and not being in control of the boat.

The Broads is far better "policed" than most other waterways and we have seen the rangers flagging down boats where they believe the skipper is behaving dangerously due to drink. In the 12 years that we have been cruising the inland waterways the Broads is the only place where we have seen designated waterways authority rangers. We have never seen them on our home waters. 

Whatever you do though there are always going to be idiots about. You can't legislate for idiots.

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There are plenty of eye witnesses re the speeding boat saga on various FB groups

As for drinking at the helm - I always thought it was compulsory?  

Talking sensibly (really?) I agree wi MM’s post on this one. I don’t think that I have ever been legless whilst underway but plenty of times have been way over the Legal DD limit ( 2 x pints can do that nowadays )

Griff 

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