Being safe with our boats and trailers is of utmost concern to us all. Indeed, Roly Simpson has written on safety issues on more than one occasion in his Commodore’s Log during the year.

You will remember that we completely revised our rules a couple of years ago and there were a number of aspects to the rules dealing with safety and responsibility. Your committee has been reviewing those rules and we have identified some areas for improvement. We are therefore intending to propose rule amendments as set out below to be approved at the AGM. New words are shown in red.

In particular we wanted to emphasise more clearly a theme of safety and individual responsibility of members and skippers, including responsibility for young people. We hope you will agree our draft achieves this in a positive way that avoids being in any way prescriptive.

Your committee intends to continue to promote safety and personal responsibility in all of our activities. These rule changes are designed to provide a foundation on which all members can build, so that the Association can continue to develop and can be seen to be operating at the highest level.

The formal notice of the rule amendment will be contained in the agenda to be published in the newsletter in January. The purpose of this announcement on the website is to invite you to let us have any comments you may have on the draft rule amendments ahead of the AGM.

Assuming the rule amendments are agreed, the committee will revise the Event Organisers Procedure document to reflect the changes.

Rule 11

11.1 Responsibility for boats, trailers, tow vehicles or any property either ashore or on the water rests with each individual owner or skipper.

11.2 Skippers of boats on the water are responsible for the safety of themselves, their boat and their crew according to law. Skippers should be particularly mindful of their responsibilities when there are young people on board.

11.3 All participants at Association events are expected to adopt high standards of safety for their own benefit and for the benefit of others around them.

11.4 All Members are encouraged to help foster high standards of safety in others wherever it is felt appropriate. However, no member of the Association, whether a Committee member or otherwise, accepts any responsibility for the safety of other members or their crews or their guests

11.5 Members, crews and guests take part in Association events entirely at their own risk.

11.6 No member of the Association, whether a Committee member or otherwise, accepts any responsibility for the loss of or damage to other persons’ vehicles, vessels, or other property in any circumstances.

11.7 Members should have at least third party insurance and should check that their cover is appropriate for Association events.

Mike McNerney
Secretary