Category: Safety

RYA Powerboat Training at Medway YC

Medway Yacht Club will be running RYA Powerboat Training sessions on Thursdays and Fridays, 9.00 to 16.00. The price for the Powerboat Level 2 will be £120 for members (including members of local MSBA/RYA affiliated clubs) and £185 for non members. The first RYA Powerboat Level 2 course will be available on 18 and 19 July. If anyone is interested please book a place at training@medwayyachtclub.com at least a couple of days before the date. Or you can come into the office and Inti, the new senior instuctor, will sign you up. The Powerboat Level 2 will be run on a regular basis and Inti will endeavour to keep the course open every Thursday and Wednesday. The maximum number of places is 3 but 1-to-1 sessions are available. The first RYA Safety Boat course will be on the 15 and 16 August with the same ratio as Powerboat Level 2, from 9.00 to 16.00 and the price will be £100.

MCA yacht and powerboat safety consultation

The MCA wants to hear recreational boaters’ views on six draft Marine Guidance Notes (MGN) concerning guidance on boat safety over the next few weeks. The six notices cover guidance on keel groundings, rigging inspections, preparedness, stowage of life saving gear, vessel resilience and emergency procedures, and maintenance, modifications, damage and repairs. They are aimed at both small commercial vessels as well as pleasure boats. The MCA states that it wishes to reinforce to owners, managing agents and skippers of both commercial and pleasure vessels what it considers good practice in terms of safety when going out to sea.

Boaters’ views are sought in the following areas:
1. Whether the draft notes contain guidance that is realistic to carry out in practice;
2. What other costs and benefits there might be that haven’t been included in the de minimis assessment; 
3. If there is the right level of content in each MGN. 

Full details on the draft MGNs and how to give your views can be found on the government website. A full list of consultation questions is contained in Section 5 of this consultation. The consultation closes on Thursday 18th July 2019 and the RYA encourages all boaters to respond.

Local ditch crawler “comes out”

Author Nick Ardley, often seen cruising the Medway with his wife Christobel in their classic Finesse 24 “Whimbrel” with sailing tender in tow, has revealed that he has prostate cancer.

The diagnosis only happened after he insisted on a PSA blood test and he is campaigning for routine screening for men in the same way that women are screened. He says many a sailor’s life could be saved, so come on chaps, get a PSA test!

It’s getting worse! Please report all PWC incidents

Although many owners of personal watercraft (PWCs or jetskis) are responsible, anyone can see reckless and irresponsible behaviour almost any day on the Medway and the Swale. These craft are usually launched from Commodore’s Hard at Gillingham, where the MSBA has installed a high definition camera (see video above), or near Kingsferry Bridge on the Swale, where jetskiers have regularly tried to sink small craft on the boat club moorings presumably for fun. There have been several life-threatening incidents but the perpetrators are invariably abusive when challenged. At Gillingham the Medway Watersports Centre has had to cancel youth activities because of the jetskiers’ apparently drunken and dangerous behaviour. Peel Ports, as the statutory harbour authority, have a duty to enforce the bye-laws but will not do so unless we report all incidents. Please download the form below and use it to report ALL incidents to the MSBA and we will pass them on to Peel Ports.  Email your reports to secretary@msba.org.uk

Peel Ports PWC incident form