{"id":1791,"date":"2021-11-01T00:56:27","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T00:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/?p=1791"},"modified":"2021-11-15T19:03:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T19:03:56","slug":"defining-a-vessel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/2021\/11\/01\/defining-a-vessel\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining a vessel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In 1995 the newly-consolidated Merchant Shipping Act<\/span><\/span>, which creates maritime offences, <\/span>applied to<\/span><\/span> \u201c<\/span>every description of vessel used in navigation\u201d<\/i><\/span> and this seemed <\/span>all-encompassing<\/span><\/span> enough until 2005 that is, when the High Court ruled that to be \u201c<\/span>used in navigation<\/i><\/span>\u201d <\/span>means making<\/span><\/span> an ordered progression over the water from one place to another. <\/span>C<\/span><\/span>raft that <\/span>were<\/span><\/span> simply used for having fun without the object of going anywhere therefore <\/span>fell outside<\/span><\/span> the <\/span>law<\/span><\/span>. This <\/span>led to <\/span><\/span>the acquittal of someone being prosecuted for a fatal <\/span>collision with a stationary vessel<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Panic, but few things move more slowly, it seems, than maritime law. A consultation was <\/span>tri<\/span><\/span>ed in 2009 but this proved inconclusive. <\/span>But<\/span><\/span> here we are now, 16 years after the original ruling, with a <\/span>fresh<\/span><\/span> consultation on what is now <\/span>term<\/span><\/span>ed <\/span>\u201cpersonal watercraft\u201d<\/i><\/span> (PWC) to bring leisure vessels once again <\/span>under<\/span><\/span> the law.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
WikiCommons pic of kite surfing hydrofoil popular in California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The proposal is to define a PWC as any type of craft <\/span>which<\/span> (a) is situated wholly or partly in or on water; (b) is used, or is capable of being used, to carry one or more persons; and (c) is less than 24 metres in overall length<\/i><\/span>. So far so good, but it is always possible to snatch defeat <\/span>from <\/span><\/span>the jaws of victory. There is an exclusion for children\u2019s toys, which is fine, but also for <\/span>\u201can unpowered craft which is less than 2.5 metres in overall length\u201d<\/i><\/span>. This means that paddleboards count as PWCs but windsurfers <\/span>which<\/span><\/span> are less than 2.5m<\/span><\/span> and a lot of non-displacement craft like kite surfers and hydrofoils, both of which can travel at spectacular speeds, <\/span>remain<\/span><\/span> outside the law.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Does this matter since many harbours, including Salcombe, have byelaws<\/a> w<\/span>hich define a <\/span><\/span>vessel in such <\/span>a way that covers everything, including hydrofoils and even pontoons<\/span><\/span>? The answer is yes. In 2013 legislation was <\/span>enact<\/span><\/span>ed to enable harbours to use Harbour Directions instead of byelaws for m<\/span>ost<\/span><\/span> purposes. Harbour Directions are intended to be simpler, quicker, more flexible and cheaper to make than byelaws \u2013 but they <\/span>are tied to<\/span><\/span> the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 definitions. A harbour would still need to make byelaws if it wished to <\/span>cover<\/span><\/span> all windsurfers, for <\/span>example<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is, of course, a solution \u2013 apart from the long-standing joke that a vessel should be defined in law as \u201canything that floats\u201d. <\/span>Salcombe\u2019s proposal is<\/span><\/span> to allow harbours <\/span>with<\/span><\/span> byelaws to use th<\/span>e same<\/span><\/span> definition of a vessel in <\/span>their<\/span><\/span> Harbour Directions.<\/span> The consultation ended on 1 November. Will Salcombe\u2019s view prevail? We will have to wait and see, but please not another 16 years.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1995 the newly-consolidated Merchant Shipping Act, which creates maritime offences, applied to \u201cevery description of vessel used in navigation\u201d and this seemed all-encompassing enough until 2005 that is, when the High Court ruled that to be \u201cused in navigation\u201d means making an ordered progression over the water from one place to another. Craft that were simply used for having fun without the object of going anywhere therefore fell outside the law. This led to the acquittal of someone being…<\/p>\n

read moreDefining a vessel<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1791"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1802,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791\/revisions\/1802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/hugh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}