Strangford Lough Race abandonment

[michaelcheers]

For example of how not to conduct a de brief read these.

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/foru ... hp?t=26827http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/foru ... hp?t=22541
There is more if you look for it. Its vitriolic stuff, but you are drawn to it like a seeing a car crash in slow motion.....The discussions however refer to the other sea kayak race incidents that I was referring to earlier. Reading between the lines there may be some other things we can learn from these incidents also.

An analogue scenario that may offer a valid comparison is the typical safety cover that might be in place for a sailing dingy race on inshore tidal waters with a similar number of competitors. At the club that I have in mind, there would usually be a Racing Officer who would have over all control of the race and who would be located on a base vessel. At least 3 RIBS would generally patrol the fleet and report in to the Racing Officer via VHF any time they provided assistance or covered someone performing a self resue so the remaing boats could be co-ordinated to provide cover for the rest of the racing fleet. The base vessel was well appointed and it had a fixed VHF with a greater range than the hand helds on the RIBs. No one is allowed to operate the RIB\'s without having first tken the RYA safety boat course.
With a simple set of flags signals the race could be shortened to a pre defined short course if conditions required it i.e. too much wind or not enough to push the fleet around in a reasonable time.

Regards

MikePost edited by: michaelcheers, at: 2007/12/05 05:33

[rickyfulton]

As a participator somewhere behind Jim MORRISEY but certainly not at the rear i was oblivious to the drama until the event was abandoned and even then the rumours of demise of some participants was greatly heightened and exaggerrated by the lack of real info on those who who were apparently missing but on that point i think that if there was any concern real or otherwise it was correct to be concerned.
The organisation was good for support and no blame attached to anyone for the failure of the support boats.Shit happens and we have to deal with it.As far as i know everyone did and more power to them.
If i had a critisicm it would be that not enough attention was given to the weather at the briefing. It was forecast to be a big weather day and so it proved and for those less experienced the difficulties this could cause should have been made clear to them and where they were known to more experienced paddlers --- perhaps a discrete word would have been appropiate.
Finally i think BKC should run another one next year.

[rickyfulton]

As a participator somewhere behind Jim MORRISEY but certainly not at the rear i was oblivious to the drama until the event was abandoned and even then the rumours of demise of some participants was greatly heightened and exaggerrated by the lack of real info on those who who were apparently missing but on that point i think that if there was any concern real or otherwise it was correct to be concerned.
The organisation was good for support and no blame attached to anyone for the failure of the support boats.Shit happens and we have to deal with it.As far as i know everyone did and more power to them.
If i had a critisicm it would be that not enough attention was given to the weather at the briefing. It was forecast to be a big weather day and so it proved and for those less experienced the difficulties this could cause should have been made clear to them and where they were known to more experienced paddlers --- perhaps a discrete word would have been appropiate.
Finally i think BKC should run another one next year.