Boating and slipping regulations.
Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2022 5:09 am
I was talking to a neighbour recently who owns a keeler. He sails regularly with a crew in club races and the subject of this years haulout came up. He told me of the new and now more rigorous enforcement of established regulations that are making it almost uneconomic for the average keelboat owner to perform DIY maintenance on their boat.
Three decades ago, in our first year of big boat ownership we had our Swiftcraft on the hard locally while I rebuilt my trailer and arranged a mooring. If you wanted to work on the boat you just rocked up. Things of course have evolved over time for good reason. But my neighbour told me slipping these days requires more and more additional costs to the point of making yacht ownership almost beyond the means of Joe Blow.
To wit.(not all new)
All persons on site have to have a work card (green?)@ $150 per person.
All persons inducted onto the work site. ($??)
All electrical equipment must be tagged.(not cheap)
Chemical sheets covering all chemicals with safety info.
All chemicals including polishing creams, cutting compounds etc even your coffee have to be labeled (ok, I made the last one up)
Tarps to catch removed material for disposal
Tarps hung to contain dust.
Probably more he didn’t mention.
Nobody would argue that these have not been introduced over time for good reasons for the most part. I’m very careful with safety, dust and disposal of material at home, as I’ve riffed on here before, but it’s just another good reason that owning a trailerable vessel makes makes more sense as things get worse regulation wise.
I’ve no idea where this will go in the finish but it may well destroy the viability of keelboat ownership other than for the well heeled and scrap many seaworthy and otherwise viable old boats.
And that would be a shame.
In the end my neighbour worked out it was getting closer and closer in cost to getting the job done professionally so he’s opted for that this year and his crew are chipping in but, he’s unsure how far in the future this will be viable. Ever increasing insurance costs are also beginning to bite and that’s covered on here elsewhere. I’d also add that the word “professionally” is somewhat subjective in certain cases, not meaning just boat stuff here of course, but who doesn’t have a story of “professionally “ done stuff needing to be redone.
I’m Interested In anybody having experience with this.
Three decades ago, in our first year of big boat ownership we had our Swiftcraft on the hard locally while I rebuilt my trailer and arranged a mooring. If you wanted to work on the boat you just rocked up. Things of course have evolved over time for good reason. But my neighbour told me slipping these days requires more and more additional costs to the point of making yacht ownership almost beyond the means of Joe Blow.
To wit.(not all new)
All persons on site have to have a work card (green?)@ $150 per person.
All persons inducted onto the work site. ($??)
All electrical equipment must be tagged.(not cheap)
Chemical sheets covering all chemicals with safety info.
All chemicals including polishing creams, cutting compounds etc even your coffee have to be labeled (ok, I made the last one up)
Tarps to catch removed material for disposal
Tarps hung to contain dust.
Probably more he didn’t mention.
Nobody would argue that these have not been introduced over time for good reasons for the most part. I’m very careful with safety, dust and disposal of material at home, as I’ve riffed on here before, but it’s just another good reason that owning a trailerable vessel makes makes more sense as things get worse regulation wise.
I’ve no idea where this will go in the finish but it may well destroy the viability of keelboat ownership other than for the well heeled and scrap many seaworthy and otherwise viable old boats.
And that would be a shame.
In the end my neighbour worked out it was getting closer and closer in cost to getting the job done professionally so he’s opted for that this year and his crew are chipping in but, he’s unsure how far in the future this will be viable. Ever increasing insurance costs are also beginning to bite and that’s covered on here elsewhere. I’d also add that the word “professionally” is somewhat subjective in certain cases, not meaning just boat stuff here of course, but who doesn’t have a story of “professionally “ done stuff needing to be redone.
I’m Interested In anybody having experience with this.