The good old RYA

[alice]

so how come the zap cats are still going to race again this year

[sean1982]

so whats with the side protection then? whats that gonna involve?

[kitten]

Originally Posted by OCRDA

Don't panic "ITS TEMPORARY" !!

So was income tax


Wasn't there an RYA "full safety review" at the time

[OCRDA]

Originally Posted by leds

even though it is "temporary" not much good to us when we have our last race of the season next week !

You guys need to put in for your normal course approval on the basis that you are effectively Offshore Club Racing neither your boats nor your courses resemble OCR !! That is of course assuming that your organisers and officials actually want your event to go ahead.

Good luck

Bob

[powerboat3]

This has just confirmed my plans for next year.. One less boat racing in the UK

Bonjour south of france!!

Dan

[alice]

Originally Posted by powerboat3

This has just confirmed my plans for next year.. One less boat racing in the UK

Bonjour south of france!!

Dan

i wouldnt write it off yet,im sure it will be sorted,lets not forget someone died and they have to look into safety or at least be seen to be looking into it.theres no way racing will stop.

[Ringmaster]

Originally Posted by alice

i wouldnt write it off yet,im sure it will be sorted,lets not forget someone died and they have to look into safety or at least be seen to be looking into it.theres no way racing will stop.

Well said! I'm sure that the families want to see improvements if possible to reduce the risks of this happening. We all know any type of motor sport is dangerous but nobody wants to lose friends or loved ones if it can be helped. I know nothing, and don't pretend to know anything on OCR but I am sure, as with all sports fatalities, it will continue.

[Renegade]

so its the courses that are the problem????? dont do the small courses then? i cant believe that side impact etc is being banded about, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the boats, racing or involved.

[biffer]

i'm all for safety when it's attached to a large helping of common sense, i take it all you guys like racing your boats, so why not all get together and do just that, sort your own stuff out and bugger them, a whole heap of us went round britain in 1999 with out any help from the clingons, those who could just chipped in and helped each other, you might not get a cup or some bird kissing your cheek but you get your boat in the water, i'm not saying don't do there events but it doesn't seem like fun anymore and that's what i thought it was all about. my opinion for what it's worth is the race boat owners look at it as sport and the clingons look at it as business, with a few exceptions

[Jon Holmes]

As an onlooker who doesn't know his arse from his elbow, how would one go about setting up a new governing body?

(I am making the assumption that most of you would rather break away from the Rag and Yardarm Association?)

[PerformanceDodge]

Originally Posted by Jon Holmes

As an onlooker who doesn't know his arse from his elbow, how would one go about setting up a new governing body?

(I am making the assumption that most of you would rather break away from the Rag and Yardarm Association?)

I don’t know my arse from my elbow either, especially when it comes to boat racing, but I would hope I have a smidgen of common sense.

Setting up another governing body to side step the Coroners recommendations would be foolish, the Coroner may not have teeth but if he decided to involve the Health and Safety Executive because he had been ignored, they defiantly do have teeth and lots of them. Setting up another governing body may be a good idea but the problems would still have to be addressed.

Although I have not seen the Coroners report, I did read the MAIB report a year ago and for what it’s worth put forward some suggestions, that weren’t taken seriously at the time and as a newish member to this site was not going to push the point. From what I read in the MAIB report there was three things I picked up on. The position of the boats on impact, the structural failure of the side of the boat and the fact that the helmet smashed and came off. I put forward some practical suggestions regarding the structural failure of the boat and the failure of the helmet, my comments can be found at the link below.

http://www.boatmad.com/forum/showthr...dover+incident

As for the position of the boats I would leave this to the racing experts but I am sure there must be a solution may be that there must be five boat width between you and the nearest boat that is in the lead and closest to the turn marker.

IMHO this situation has been a long time coming and I am surprised that its taken so long for someone to loose there life. With the changing world that we live in where everything is safety orientated may be it is time for OCR to clean up its act. Just as an example put F4SA racing into youtube and it can quite clearly be seen from any of the video’s some of the drivers drove them like dodgem cars, 150 and 225’s. For all boat racing this should become a strictly a non contact sport and any touching or colliding should be investigated and go before a committee, where bans are handed out with a minimum of one race ban up to a five year ban, then drivers may take this more seriously.

Just as a final comment I notice on the P1 web site there is a picture of a boat going over the top of another boat used to promote the sport. IMHO as power boat racing is under the spotlight at the moment this does not do the sport any favors, promote safe driving or impress safety authorities, see Below. This picture depict a very serious incident where someone came close being seriously injured or worse. I stand corrected if I’m wrong but I doubt that it was ever even investigated. May be its time for change if this sport is to continue.

[Burty]

Looks like the driver of the red boat has bailed out

[OCRDA]

It might be a good idea if you all stop digging now. This mess is going to take enough sorting out without every man and his dog putting in their guesses as to what has happened and how to avoid it happening again. This was nothing more than an unfortunate racing accident in a sport that some of us have signed up to being fully aware of the risks.
Enough is enough !! Any of you that genuinely know what happened and have some sound ideas for improvement please do not hesitate to put it forward to your club representative to pass on to the RYA.

[Tony Davis]

Originally Posted by freddy21

Setting up another governing body to side step the Coroners recommendations would be foolish, .

A different governing body is something that has been talked about for years, as lot's of people are pretty f***ed off with the RYA.

You only have to go to an ORC meeting to see what the problems are, of which there are many.

If I was still racing, I'd vote for a change in a shot, but I can't see it happening in the foreseeable future.

The French seem to have it right, and so does Ski Racing, so I'm sure it could be done. Perhaps the MSA would be interested, wonder if they've ever been approached?

[Catweazle]

:

Originally Posted by biffer

i'm all for safety when it's attached to a large helping of common sense, i take it all you guys like racing your boats, so why not all get together and do just that, sort your own stuff out and bugger them, a whole heap of us went round britain in 1999 with out any help from the clingons, those who could just chipped in and helped each other, you might not get a cup or some bird kissing your cheek but you get your boat in the water, i'm not saying don't do there events but it doesn't seem like fun anymore and that's what i thought it was all about. my opinion for what it's worth is the race boat owners look at it as sport and the clingons look at it as business, with a few exceptions

[JBP]

Originally Posted by Gerbil112

"A decision that has not be taken lightly...

Head to head racing in OCR style boats has been temporarily suspended for the remainder of the 2011 season. This will affect the two remaining events at Guernsey and Stewartby. Time trials and “Top Gun” match racing can continue.

John Puddifoot RYA Powerboat Racing Manager: “Clearly this is an extremely serious decision and one that we have not taken lightly. We have consulted with the Chairman of the Powerboat Racing Committee and the Chair of the Offshore and Circuit Racing Committees, as well as the clubs which were organising the two remaining races of the season. The safety of the competitors and the long term sustainability of the sport lay at the heart of this decision. The reason for this decision arises out of concerns regarding side impact protection for drivers and navigators.”

The RYA can confirm that a full safety review will be conducted for all classes in Offshore, Circuit and Jetsport disciplines and that recommendations arising from this review will be incorporated into the racing rules for 2012.

The RYA recognise the disappointment this temporary suspension will have within the sport but hope that all race organisers will appreciate the situation and work closely with the RYA





Nicola Drummond

Powerboat Racing Senior Administrator"

I see no mention in the 'revised' release about the Weymouth event being cancelled then......as this was issued before the event commenced...... From what I remember the initial communication last Thursday stated 'the RYA can no longer permit boats of this type to race head to head until such time as a solution to the problem has been found' which was followed by the permission to run time trials/top gun racing.

So with that in mind the Weymouth Event went ahead, as it was organised by UKOBA, however, due to the restrictions placed on the above it was only feesable for T/cats to race.

For those not in the know 'top gun' racing can only be run under certain conditions with fixed start and finish points which Weymouth Bay has very few of apart from the pier and ferry port car park which have some significant risks in racing around.......

Oh and as for consulting with the clubs the first I saw/heard was the Thursday email curtailing head to head racing of OCR type boats at 16:30ish when I'd left work early to set about running the UKFFORC elements of the weekend........

Rant done for now or until rattled enough again to say some more.......

[hunton69]

Windemere 2009 Jan Fawoski flips a boat with a canopy at approx 90mph and a day later someone from the RYA drivers the same boat at 122 mph with a smashed up canopy.

What danger

[larby]

Originally Posted by OCRDA

You guys need to put in for your normal course approval on the basis that you are effectively Offshore Club Racing neither your boats nor your courses resemble OCR !! That is of course assuming that your organisers and officials actually want your event to go ahead.

Good luck

Bob

In light of the situation that's a pretty unfair thing to say Bob, you're making it look like it's our fault we're not racing. I supplied the RYA with a comprehensive list of every boat's type, layup, engine, seating etc etc and they specifically told us we were not to go ahead. We didn't have a choice.
Many of our boats are exactly the type of craft the don't want racing, and our courses are mainly small offshore circuits, so 'offshore circuit racing'.

Right now all I'm interested in is assuring our guys that one way or another things will not change drastically for us and they WILL continue racing with a great season again next year.

James

[pro-rig]

Originally Posted by hunton69

Windemere 2009 Jan Fawoski flips a boat with a canopy at approx 90mph and a day later someone from the RYA drivers the same boat at 122 mph with a smashed up canopy.

What danger

The boat in question was never re run with a smashed up canopy, unless of course you are referring to the rear cowl. The boat has a full saftey cell which can be run open or closed. As there was no damage to the safety cell it's self there was no reason why the boat could not continue to run