Threat to our freedom?

[JennyMorgan]

From the Broads Authority's Navigation Committee draft minutes:

 

Powerboat Racing Annual Review

 

This report outlined the background to powerboat racing on Oulton Broad and the members’ views were sought on the management of powerboat racing on Oulton Broad and the fixture list for the 2015 season. Members were informed that the Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) identified powerboat racing on Oulton Broad as being a priority for more detailed consideration. The recommendations for powerboat racing included considering the closure of the Broad during racing events and ensuring that there is an adequate exclusion area and good buffer zone around the race circuit.

 

The Authority has a short memory! The last time closure of the Broad reared its ugly head the Authority was warned that private boat owners would blockade the Broad during speedboat racing.

 

If speedboat racing is deemed that unsafe then it is that that should be discontinued, not the right to navigate. Close a Broad for one activity then where next?

 

As it is, speedboat racing has taken place on Oulton Broad for very many years, coexisting with other activities, why consider closure of the Broad now?

[Oddfellow]

I always feel in situations like this that men in suits with little or no practical experience of what they are debating get around a table and justify their existence.

 

This frequently results in ill-judged, unpopular decisions being made that cost a good deal of money to implement, require swift change and modification (but rarely recinded as this would prove the suits unworthy of their positions).

 

Closure of the Broad during racing would cause many problems for holiday makers who would have to forego a trip to Oulton, turn around (possibly on the cusp of sunset) and cruise to the Dutch Tea Gardens which will probably be full for the same reason and then go somewhere else, assuming they could see. This is likley to cause conjestion and so raise the opportunity for accidents.

 

It is a mad idea.

[Guest]

.....The Authority has a short memory! The last time closure of the Broad reared its ugly head the Authority was warned that private boat owners would blockade the Broad during speedboat racing.

 

If speedboat racing is deemed that unsafe then it is that that should be discontinued, not the right to navigate. Close a Broad for one activity then where next?....

 

If this is the same BA document Peter, it then goes on to say:

 

"The risk assessment has been reviewed and it was agreed the risk assessment should be amended to introduce an additional control measure relating to boats leaving the pits to join the race course. No additional amendments are required.

As a result no further changes are necessary to the overall management plan for power boat racing for the 2015 racing season. The Broads Authority will continue to work with Oulton Broad Harbour Master, and LOBMBC to ensure that two patrols are provided to ensure safe transit of the broad for other users during power boat racing events and continue where necessary to restrict boat movements while a race is being undertaken."

 

from http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/534803/Power-Boat-Racing-Annual-Review-nc260215.pdf

 

So although it was on the agenda to be discussed, they appear to have decided against it anyway, in that same document.

.

[smellyloo]

Having read the document it would seem, as Strowager has said, that a safety review took place and concluded that very little needed to change.

 

I think it wise that when such powerful craft are racing adjacent to other craft that such a review is regularly made.

 

I used to love cruising past the race on my return to my mooring and am pleased to see that it will continue as before.

[JennyMorgan]

Strowager is quite correct but it does appear, once again, that BA officers are pushing this one. In that respect I think Andy's comments, especially about men in suits,  are absolutely spot on. Left to the speedboat club I am confident that everybody can continue to coexist as they have for a century! Just a pity that we have to be on our toes.

[BroadScot]

As it happens I arrived when the racing was on in May last year, I was told where to go down the port side of the Broad. It was a very windy day, so good fun steering down the narrower passage than you would normally. I hope things stay in the status quo.

 

Iain

[Matt]

Given the choice of cruising past the marked out course or THROUGH the many sailing regattas I know which I prefer and where I am least likely to be involved in an incident and it is not Oulton Broad!

[jeffbroadslover]

Anybody know when was the last time a cruiser ( hired or private) was involved in an "accident" with a power boat during racing?

 

 

 

Jeff

[Guest]

Anybody know when was the last time a cruiser ( hired or private) was involved in an "accident" with a power boat during racing?....

 

Several "incidents" each year actually, the already linked BA document contains that information.

 

"There were seven incidents recorded for the 2014 season this was down on the previous year. Incidents were reviewed for the 2014 season both officers and the RYA were largely content with the findings and mitigation measures currently in place.

However one incident involved a collision between a race craft and a moored boat. The race boat was leaving the pit area to join the race course and clipped the moored boat damaging the moored boat’s rudder. The circumstances regarding the collision were reviewed and additional measures were agreed."

 

from  http://www.broads-authority.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/534803/Power-Boat-Racing-Annual-Review-nc260215.pdf

[marshman]

I think the title of this thread is very misleading , to say the least.

 

IMHO the BA have a duty to carry out such reviews and indeed were a serious incident to take place and they had not reviewed it, I believe they could be seriously criticised.. It has nothing to do with our freedom - more about ensuring that the users of the Broad remain safe and able to the spectacle  In the circumstances both sides should be organised properly and thats what has happened.

 

I really cannot see that the BA have operated in any way other than would be expected. But then that is only my view.....!!!

[Guest]

....I really cannot see that the BA have operated in any way other than would be expected. But then that is only my view.....!!!

 

ditto....

[Oddfellow]

I guess I am partly to blame for any misleading in that I commented on Peter's first post without reading the document that he had extracted the information from where others later clarified the situation. My apologies for this. 

 

However, I stand by my comments about suits.....  

[ExUserGone]

Your comment about the suits was absolutely spot on Andy, in just about every organisation I have ever come across with suits in control.

Why has no-one invented the 4 piece suit? Like a 3 piece but with a brain attached.

[Samuel]

What i have gathered from this discussion is that there is a threat to 'our' freedom (a bit like fascist Germany was perhaps), organisations which have men who wear suits in charge are inherently inefficient and those men do not have any brains, and motor boat racing will continue at Oulton Broad. Have I got it right?

[JennyMorgan]

Whatever the outcome this time around surely the moral of the whole saga is that we need to keep on our toes otherwise something unpleasant could so easily slip below the radar.

[Guest]

Luckily you alerted us to the fact that no one was doing anything about anything. We can sleep safe in our beds.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of whit.

[Guest]

Luckily you alerted us to the fact that no one was doing anything about anything. We can sleep safe in our beds........

 

Quite right Bill, and perhaps we can even sleep all the more safely, knowing that the BA doesn't "have a short memory", and sometimes discusses things properly. 

 

Maybe the thread title would be more accurate if it was "BA defends our freedom"....

[JennyMorgan]

 

 

Maybe the thread title would be more accurate if it was "BA defends our freedom"....

 

 

 

If only . . . . . . . . . .  the empirical evidence suggest otherwise!

[ExMemberBobdog]

No it doesn't.

[JennyMorgan]

None so blind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

[Guest]

Peter, will you not at least concede that in this particular instance that you bought to our attention, that they have defended our freedom to navigate the Broad during race events ?

 

It's difficult for most of us to come to any other conclusion from those BA minutes.....

[ExMemberBobdog]

[JennyMorgan]

Peter, will you not at least concede that in this particular instance that you bought to our attention, that they have defended our freedom to navigate the Broad during race events ?

 

It's difficult for most of us to come to any other conclusion from those BA minutes.....

Sorry, Strow, not this time. We have had too many niggling attacks over a number of years, and not just on Oulton Broad. Granted that nothing came of it, this time. If speedboat racing really is that dangerous then make it safe, don't even suggest closing the navigation. 

[Guest]

Sorry, Strow, not this time. We have had too many niggling attacks over a number of years, and not just on Oulton Broad. Granted that nothing came of it, this time. If speedboat racing really is that dangerous then make it safe, don't even suggest closing the navigation. 

 

Well, like I said Peter, It would appear that everyone else has come to a different conclusion to yours again.

 

Thank you for bringing it to our attention though, it's good to know that such a suggestion was discussed and quite rightly  rejected by the BA.

[JennyMorgan]

Yes, Strow, rightly and thankfully it was rejected. However, when in the past, at a Navigation Committee meeting, we had serious proposals from on high that Oulton Broad should be closed whilst Dragon Boat racing took place, for heavens sakes, then perhaps others, if not yourself,  will understand the caution with which I receive any mention of closure.

 

On another occasion it was proposed, by a man who's name we are both familiar with but I won't mention, that Oulton Broad be a centre for spectator sports and that the Broad be closed to navigation whilst such activities took place. A totally impractical suggestion but it was made in all seriousness, hence my caution. 

 

During the consultation for the draft Broads Bill closure of Oulton Broad during speedboat racing was a very real threat, one of the reasons I petitioned against it in the House of Lords.

 

Sorry Strow, I'm not going to drop my guard, I've watched how the man works.