Hi Cat, you are being very hard on the Authorities. As I see it, all the situations you describe are poor seamanship (unless you are saying craft did collide) None of it has any likelihood of a prosecution.
Even when the Authorities have what you'd think is a cast-iron case, as here in the frozen north some years back. Where the skipper with a crew of novices was advised by the dep HM (ex master mariner of many years experience) not to go to sea. This vhf conversation was recorded and presented to the court. A commercial vessel about 1M ahead of the yacht could be seen struggling with its prop occasionaly thrashing away at thin air. He disregarded the advice and went out. On the way back in the yacht was lifted so it was vertical, then it came down on its side, throwing three of the novices in the sea (they were not clipped on). Sadly two drowned.
He was up for manslaughter. The court threw the case out. (inappropriate expert witness I think)
What weight will a court give to a radar playback?
As for crab pots placed in the entrance channel - try reporting the position and description to the harbour authority. Hopefully the HM will find the culprit and make him move it.
'how do we stop just getting angry?' - Er, put down the air horn and chill. Pour yourself a small glass of red.
This is a very important point. On the river Orwell there is supposedly a speed limit, but nobody does anything whatever to enforce it, and so it is widely ignored. There is a designated water skiing area, but because it is not policed, that too is widely ignored. There was a terrible accident the other weekend when a girl being towed in one of those daft rubber rings by a speed boat, apparently doing well over the designated speed limit, and reportedly way outside the designated speed boat area, crashed into the side of a yacht, sustaining devastating head injuries (and doubtless traumatising the yacht crew, who apparently were just trying to enjoy a sunny afternoon).
If the poor girl dies, there will be an inquest, at which presumably the Coroner would make some recommendations about enforcement measures. However, if she survives (which naturally everyone hopes will be the case) there is unlikely to be any sort of official inquiry, and so no lessons will be learned, no action will be taken, and more dreadful incidents of this type will continue to happen.
There is little point in harbour authorities using their powers to create by-laws if no effort is put into enforcing them. The vast majority of people on the water (racers, cruisers and motorboaters alike) do their best to behave responsibly and with consideration for others. But it would be nice to have some protection from the lunatic fringe.
Maybe Chi is the exception to the rule here - as they DO enforce the byelaws, including successful prosecutions. However I think maybe sometimes they are a bit selective!
Radar evidence is admissible in court provided it is indisputable that the vessel involved is properly acquired, etc. In my old job we used the CNIS radar playback on more than one occasion, and certainly with an AIS overlay its pretty conclusive - although maybe not many yachts have it (yet).
Worth also bearing in mind though that radar evidence can lead to incorrect court action... think POB.
ABP do not enforce the 6kt speed limit in the upper part of Southampton Water. The worst culprits are PWCs so is it the case that the llimit can not be enforced after some judge decided PWCs were not vessels subject to the same rules as the rest of us?
It should be about good seamanship and polite & considerate behaviour!
The problem is that a percentage of boat owners, know nothing about good seamanship, being polite or being considerate.
However, I have foung that a quiet informal word in a low key way explaining to people the consquences of their action always works well and often makes friends. The good seamanship bit is something that actually eveybody wants to learn about, and to be judged by other yachtsmen as a good seaman.
The only other alternative is to get angry, ruin your own day and to start abdicating on our community self help reponse by demanding more laws and more policemen - the Daily Mail approach to life - look what that has done in our cities and on our roads - I really don't think that is the way ahead. Do we really want the US Coastguard way of micro-managing our every move?
The only thing that I'd add is that the boat owners (and others in life) who know nothing about being polite and considerate are a lost cause but the ones who know nothing about good seamanship (yet) are the ones that experienced sailors should be trying to help!
