From Alaska to New York on MY Trawler
8 April 2016
US Coast Guard Cartes allows digital maps and publications to replace paper.
8 April 2016
Considered to be the most important piece of maritime legislation in many years, the Leroy Bill was the subject of a compromise between the Senate, Parliament and the Government, and was adopted.
We could have dispensed with art. 12 bis, which states:
An article L. 5241-1-1 is added to Section 1 of Chapter I of Title IV of Book II of Part Five of the French Transport Code:
“Art. L. 5241-1-1. – Whatever their flag, pleasure boats and personal watercraft belonging to natural or legal persons having their principal residence or registered office in France, as well as pleasure boats and personal watercraft enjoyed by such persons, are subject, in French territorial waters, to all the rules relating to boatmasters’ licenses and armament and safety equipment applicable on board pleasure boats and personal watercraft flying the French flag. “
This means that in French waters, you need to carry the equipment required by French law and have a motorboat driver’s license.
The first thing to consider is that France is imposing its buttocks on international laws, on free movement within the European community, and regulating the derisory in order to have the impression of organizing an ideal Society, without any consideration for the economic reality and practical inopportunity of these measures.
In short, in elegant terms, France is bothering the world for nothing.
If we compare French and Belgian equipment requirements, the difference is negligible. see here the official website
Pleasure craft except canoes, kayaks and sailboards
Life-saving equipment: a life jacket for each person on board, a luminous lifebuoy if the vessel is sailing at night, effective distress signals including rockets.
Nautical instruments: magnetic compass, navigation lights, foghorn and hand-held depth sounder.
Equipment: an anchor, a hammer, a gaff, a pump or bailer, a sufficient number of oars with their creels, 20 meters of rope for routine maneuvers, an electric lamp to give light signals, a fire extinguisher (for motor yachts), a complete set of sails (for sailing boats).
Sanitary equipment: a watertight box containing dressing kits and other common pharmaceutical products.
Documents: flag letter, duplicate insurance policy, navigation regulations, tide directory, updated nautical charts.
The difference, then, is the lifeboat; we have to legislate for that, and who says legislate, control, punish, beat up, inquisit.
Then there’s the problem of the permit. No permit for the Belgians, a ridiculous permit for the French, passed in a weekend, and no permit for sailboats?
Is it still necessary to legislate for so little, for so anecdotal, for so ineffective?
We start from a preconceived idea, without even questioning the claims record of Belgian pavilions, to once again put the pandores at the foot of our boxes.
Note: it’s a safe bet that this superb article will be crossed out by the European authorities.
Imagine if every country made its own sauce and our Belgian neighbors demanded that we all have a deep-fat fryer on board?
Let’s transpose this feat to cars and forbid the French to drive in the UK with their steering wheel on the wrong side.
Ridiculous was the title of a film for the end of a reign!
