The mind boggles!!!

**Peter B** · 04-03-2006, 21:15

Got a call from my harbourmaster today who knows I do boat electrics and electronics. New boat owner in the harbour Pete he said. Got a problem with his fishfinder, could you have a look at it for him please. Yes, I said, no Prob.

Got down there. Great boat 25ft GRP, inboard 30 horse engine, fully fiitted out wheel house with GPS, Radio, fish finder, the works. New owner was there to meet me. Ok I said what's the problem. That thing there, (pointing to the fish finder) doesn't work he said. It didn't take long for me to deduce that this chap was not very experienced. Have you been to sea before I asked. Nope, he says, never, and I don't know anything about boats. What the hell have we got here I'm thinking.

OK, I said, lets have a look. The fish finder unit had a pushed in pin on its combined power/transducer socket - a very common problem. OK i said I'll take this back to the workshop and fix it for you. Ok he said. I took the unit back, opened it up , pushed the pin back out from the inside and araldited it there from the inside so it would never push in again.

Met the owner at the boat a couple of days later. Switched the fish finder on and it worked fine. I thought I should do a bit of fishing. Nice DSC radio I said, is it hooked up to your GPS? He looked at me with a vacant smile. What? he said. Your DSC radio, I said, is it connected to your GPS so that your radio knows where you are if you have to transmit a distress message. Long silence....How do I switch the radio on he asked. I shuddered and went kind of cold.

Long story short. This chap had just bought a boat, very nice boat mind you, and a boat that I would die for, knowing nothing whatsoever about boats, the sea, safety, or anything to do with it. Yet he was going to go to sea in this boat by his own admission with his family and friends without having the faintest idea about the business of being in charge of a boat at sea.

Surely to God we have got to have a law which prevents such utter stupidity from happening. I know there are threads in other forums about licensing recreational boat owners, and I have voiced my opinion on them, but this little episode has convinced me that something has to be done in law to protect innocent people from being taken to sea in boats by incompetent boat owners.

PB

**Salar** · 04-03-2006, 21:31

Happens all the time, particularly around the weathier areas near London. What often happens is they go out once, get scared/lost/sick, come back and say boats are nasty things then sell it off cheap. I just missed buying a beaut in Cowes, specially built for the owner who used it twice, and was sold for a THIRD of the money he spent on it. I could weep....

Audrey S · 04-03-2006, 23:05

Originally Posted by Peter B

Got a call from my harbourmaster today who knows I do boat electrics and electronics. New boat owner in the harbour Pete he said. Got a problem with his fishfinder, could you have a look at it for him please. Yes, I said, no Prob.

Got down there. Great boat 25ft GRP, inboard 30 horse engine, fully fiitted out wheel house with GPS, Radio, fish finder, the works. New owner was there to meet me. Ok I said what's the problem. That thing there, (pointing to the fish finder) doesn't work he said. It didn't take long for me to deduce that this chap was not very experienced. Have you been to sea before I asked. Nope, he says, never, and I don't know anything about boats. What the hell have we got here I'm thinking.

OK, I said, lets have a look. The fish finder unit had a pushed in pin on its combined power/transducer socket - a very common problem. OK i said I'll take this back to the workshop and fix it for you. Ok he said. I took the unit back, opened it up , pushed the pin back out from the inside and araldited it there from the inside so it would never push in again.

Met the owner at the boat a couple of days later. Switched the fish finder on and it worked fine. I thought I should do a bit of fishing. Nice DSC radio I said, is it hooked up to your GPS? He looked at me with a vacant smile. What? he said. Your DSC radio, I said, is it connected to your GPS so that your radio knows where you are if you have to transmit a distress message. Long silence....How do I switch the radio on he asked. I shuddered and went kind of cold.

Long story short. This chap had just bought a boat, very nice boat mind you, and a boat that I would die for, knowing nothing whatsoever about boats, the sea, safety, or anything to do with it. Yet he was going to go to sea in this boat by his own admission with his family and friends without having the faintest idea about the business of being in charge of a boat at sea.

Surely to God we have got to have a law which prevents such utter stupidity from happening. I know there are threads in other forums about licensing recreational boat owners, and I have voiced my opinion on them, but this little episode has convinced me that something has to be done in law to protect innocent people from being taken to sea in boats by incompetent boat owners.

PB

It's frightening mate isn't it, if it weren't such a sad fact it'd be funny

Ubd

**Pelagic** · 05-03-2006, 07:37

I've been saying it for years - totally unnacceptable to have a free-for-all where anyone can take a boat and passengers to sea without any experience.

Whilst I'd hate to see the leisure boating industry bogged-down by over- restriction, at the very least, basic safety equipment and third party insurance should be mandatory.

The positive side, as Salar says, is these incidents do provide a steady stream of cheap boats to the second-hand market.

The down-side is that they will also provide a steady stream of business to undertakers.

Pelagic.

**kababusmaximus** · 05-03-2006, 08:39

just had to look at the calinder thought id slept in and its now the first of april like you seid most boat anglers me included would love to own a boat like that did he have any insurance couse it sounds like he will be needing it on his first trip perhaps the harber master should have phoned the r.y.a dont know if licences are the answer more like an l plate skeam so you can keep an eye on them and keep a good distance away (bonkers) 10 out of 10

kababus

**blueskip** · 05-03-2006, 14:19

We are coming up to THAT time of the season! When caravan owners start tracking their vans to that "special little somewhere" they have been going to for years, & they are always in front of ME en route!
Plus its time for the "Birmingham Royal Navy" to blow the dust off those quaint little skippers caps they wear, you know the ones with the anchor badge on the front, & head for Aberystwyth, Swansea, & many other marina's around the Welsh Coast.
Time to rev up the "Offshore 32" turbo diesels & have a spin around the bay, call on those nice angler chappies anchored over there, & give them a friendly wave from the flying bridge, as we cream past them at 25knots 30 yards off their beam.
"Why are they shaking their fists at us darling"? "Thats typical of those bloody people darling, you try to be friendly, & that's the thanks you get"!
"Lets take a spin down Gower & see if we can spot our holiday cottage from the sea"!
"Why have we stopped darling, out of diesel, how silly, still those nice anglers that we just passed can help us perhaps, call the coastguard darling & tell them whats happened, then they will ask those anglers to come to our aid, by the way, where are we exactly"?????
Am I being too cynical or what?
blueskip

**sabretooth** · 05-03-2006, 16:02

seen it to often in the bay with the yachties that go by so close they nearly pick up your warp, even with a buoy out. cannot count the times i have had to wave them off
dave

**Gethyn Owen** · 05-03-2006, 16:49

There is a place called The Fangs near Trearddur Bay on Anglesey (not a terribely dangerous spot of water, but with two particular rocks awash, you need to know what your doing).
We drift here often for nice wrasse, I had just moved up to the Fangs one day last year, to allow the ebb tide to push me out when a yachtie under power motored passed my bow approx 20yards ahead. Collision course, luckily the yacht missed the rocks and carried on. I called them up on the VHF but to no avail.

The following day getting back into the Marina at Holyhead, one of the lads there asked if I'd seen the 'action' off the Fangs. Yep, another yacht had hit the rocks and the RNLI and Helicopter were required

**Salar** · 05-03-2006, 21:57

Originally Posted by sabretooth

seen it to often in the bay with the yachties that go by so close they nearly pick up your warp, even with a buoy out. cannot count the times i have had to wave them off
dave

Did you have your black ball up? I've been in yachts skippered by non-anglers, and they seem to assume we are either motoring or drifting, i.e. can get out of their way.

**andyhunt** · 05-03-2006, 23:12

i really cannot comprehend how these people have no fear, are they brave or stupid. i purchased my first boat in september last year and have spent the winter gathering all the information i can from you boys about safety and the like so that when i go to sea i will be as well equiped as possible, i think time and money spent on safety is very well spent, as for experience, well until i get some i will use someone elses, a mate of mine who knows the sea, boats, and the weather will be my guide, it's very cold and lonely out there, not a nice place to die,
so any newbies out there like me please get help, the sea is bigger and harder than you, she don't care, and she plays for keeps.
i want to thank all the people on the forum for your help, and heres to a great spring,
stay safe all