Having a professional maritime background, I knew that when the media picked up on Government attentions being drawn to the activities of the minority, then it would not be long before the associated department, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA), acted.
The law of the sea around the coasts of the United Kingdoms has changed – the law will be taken aboard by devolved governments.
I wrote about this during the Covid-19 pandemic, having been troubled by watercraft, and witnessing crass stupidity which resulted in Essex Police being called to the Leigh-on-Sea waterfront by members of the public.
The troubles around the waterways were raised by the Times Newspaper in a leader too. See attached posts etc…
A skiff in Queenborough Harbour beam onto an approaching wash. The oarsman turned, just in time to hit bow on.
The crux of a legal case brought up the terms within the act regarding personal watercraft and whether or not they were constituted ‘a ship’ as we know we all are under the Merchant Shipping Acts, the COLREGS and SOLAS instruments that lie at the heart of ‘the sea’…
Personal Watercraft (PWC) are designated vessels and must comply to same rules as the largest container ship!
This is going to be a shock to many owners of PWC’s where owners can live far inland, have little knowledge of area trailing to, or, more importantly the hierarchy of the sea and those upon it.
So, now the law has been changed by Parliament, it is the job of the MCA to discharge and disseminate.
A personal watercraft skimming by – this one behaved sensibly.
Harbour authorities or their sub-acolytes Queenborough Harbour(?) in the first instance will be required to act and deal with. Sitting above are the police, and the law – MCA.
Confiscation and fines will be imposed, as they have by some authorities over past few years.
Many will applaud this long overdue action…
I suggest reading through all the links within the MGN684 link. It is interesting reading!
I was sitting in hospital with time, I thought, to get on with a blog I had earlier prepared. The plan was to use up those boring hours of waiting with time to muse and think…
It wasn’t to be for I was in and out after having a total knee replacement that there just wasn’t the space. Visits from doctors, nurses administering pain blockers and coping meant time ran away.
So, my earlier thoughts on a couple of news items that popped up on Leisure Marine News had to wait.
Wherever one walks around the coast of Suffolk, Essex and Kent, the story is the same. A plethora of plastic waste can be found washed up along the tide lines…
In many respects this problem has become worse over the last decade. Why?
Well, the simplistic answer is essentially obvious – it is thrown aside by the uncaring folk of the neighbourhood or from vessels. The latter is not the norm.
The littered detritus along the tide line of a sea wall along the R. Roach in Essex seen recently during February 2023. It contained large numbers of plastic items.
Some of it will be from wind-blown material, especially up within the headwaters of the waterway.
This is not just an East Coast – Thames Estuary – problem. Sailing some years ago in the Western Isle of Scotland we came across one particularly badly affected beach in a bay. In particular, I remember fish boxes from Portugal and plastic bottles with non-English labels. Never mind the rest.
To say the least, the media has been pretty forward in promoting the cause against plastic pollution but it goes on, seemingly unabated.
Boat passed locally which has been ‘flying’ plastic bags for years. I wonder why the perpetrator of the graffiti did this terrible deed?
The vessel pictured in my own local waters has been strung with plastic bags for years – over a decade at the least – and when they shred, as they inevitably do, they are ‘quietly’ renewed.
One has to ask the question: Is the owner stupid (unlikely) or just damned uncaring of the environment. The latter is the probable.
I could not possibly condone the graffiti, but clearly a boat owner, boarder or canoeist has seen fit to make a point… Forward of the ‘D’ for DICK is a crude drawing of an erect male member! The picture was taken in October 2022 and recently when passing that way the message was still in situ but the flying plastic bags have completely shredded into the local waters.
Some years ago I landed on Burntwick Island along Saltpan Reach on the River Medway in Kent. I was looking at the old remnants from a military boom defence establishment. The ‘land’ is being eaten away by the rising tides and poking out of a metre high edge some distance from the surface there was plastic! How long it had been buried, I wondered…
Evermore dire reports are floating into the media to be read by those who are interested and ignored by, probably, the majority whether or not they condone pollution or not. Most water users are as good as gold, but we have all seen some pretty bad behaviour going on.
So, what did I read that prompted these thoughts?
From Leisure Marine 9th March 2023:
The item said that:
‘Scientific study has found that there are now 171 trillion pieces of plastic estimated to be floating in the world’s oceans. The data suggests this is an increase from an estimated concentration of 16 trillion pieces in 2005.
Plastic represents a huge threat to marine life, as it can kill fish and sea animals who mistake it for food. Plastic can take hundreds of years before it breaks down into a less harmful state.’
A recent UN treaty of the seas is signing up nations to designate protected areas around the coast – the UK is part of this system already – and around 30% of the world’s oceans would become protected too.
The article went on:
‘The reasons behind such a sharp increase are not confirmed, although researchers say it could be explained by legislation around pollution being replaced by voluntary agreements. It could also be linked to larger pieces of plastic breaking into smaller pieces — or the amount of data collected.
Prof Richard Thompson at Plymouth University, who was not involved in the study, told the BBC that the estimate adds to what scientists know about marine pollution.
“We are all agreed there is too much plastic in the ocean. We urgently need to move to solutions-focused research,” he says.
Authors of the study argue the best long-term global solutions involve standardised monitoring frameworks to track global trends, and creating binding and enforceable international agreements to prevent the emissions of plastic pollution.’
There are things that yachting folk can do to help cut the volume, other than not throwing overboard. Also, in a yacht yard, wind-blown material becomes a watery hazard.
A week or so back there was a mid-week work party team combing the foreshore along the Island Yacht Club’s moorings on Canvey Island.
‘The team, consisting of scientists from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of East Anglia and the University of Plymouth, exposed juveniles of the mussel species mytilus to three treatments of microfibre, which reflects both current and predicted future concentrations of polyester and cotton microfibres in the natural environment.
Studies suggest that as much as 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the global ocean every year.
Fibres are one of the most common forms of microplastic identified in environmental studies, accounting for up to 91 per cent of the total identified microplastics in some studies.’
The microfibres are small at around 0.01mm – 0.5mm in size and this sizing was used in an experiment with mussels in a laboratory.
The results howed slower and small size growth of maturing molluscs.
A team member said:’
‘Additionally, “Reduced growth rates could alter the energetics of food webs, as smaller mussels are less nutritionally valuable, both to their predators in the natural environment and to us as consumers of seafood. Microfibres and other microplastics expose marine animals, such as mussels, to an additional risk in an environment already at risk from other challenges such as climate change.”
Note here, plastic bag flyers:
‘Fibres that are less than 5mm are termed microfibres. These tiny fibres are predominantly generated from the fragmentation of textiles, stemming from the day-to-day use and washing of clothes, and from the weathering and abrasion of marine infrastructure, such as netting and rope.
Microfibres are typically composed of polyester, polypropylene or nylon. However, numerous studies also report the presence of naturally derived and semi-synthetic microfibres (e.g. cotton, bioplastic) in environmental samples, which have received relatively little attention compared to their plastic counterparts.’
So, to combat household washing pollution, micro-filters are being developed. The retrofit and integration of a filter to a washing machine and captures and recycles microfibres as small as one micron.
As said previously, the general public have a lot to answer for and could, at a stroke, contain much of what ends up in the seas around our shores.
Waste thrown into an emergency sluice near Conyer, in Kent on the England Coastal Path & Cycle Way.
The answer to that is highly probable. If I was ordering Whimbrel this year, and not forty years ago. Times were hugely different then. We were just getting away from the petrol or diesel fit, scenario.
My main use is for entering and leaving marinas, leaving my mooring and returning, making/completing a passage when the wind has expired and a number of incidental uses. Sails are Whimbrel’s main source of motive power.
Whimbrel sailing out of Smallgains Creek, moments after clearing her mooring.
I leave and return from my creek mooring as often as is possible. Any engine use is minimal. I have sailed into a marina, once, and sailed out of others on a number of occasions – usually early in the morning…
Now, for a new vessel, the most difficult question is, do I fit diesel or electric drive? The answer to that sits with what type of vessel, what is the main use and where – area being navigated.
New sailing yachts will be powered in this way as a norm before too long.
The news item reminded me of a Finesse 21 based down in the west country which has been converted to electric drive. The conversion work took place during a major refit after the vessel was sunk during a flash flood – fresh water from heavy rain – at the boat’s tidal mooring.
The boat was originally powered by a Yanmar 1GM diesel unit. It had a stated torque of around 34 Nm and it was replaced with an electric motor of 32 Nm torque at 1550 rpm supplied from 2 x 24 volt batteries. These were charged from solar chargers fitted on the cabin top.
Owner of Finesse 21, Ivy May, completing his new electric drive.. Courtesy: Joe Andrews.
The owner reported achieving 4.5 knots in slack water and against a gusty 20 knot head wind. Apparently, the 5kw unit and uses around 1.8 kw to achieve cruising speed.
Thanks to The Finesse Facebook Group for information.
So, that has been a successful conversion.
The duration is relatively low – reported to be around five hours. That would not suffice for east coast cruising, however, if one is able to sail up to a marina or whatever, requiring minimal use then, bingo. Slip in and plug in…
But, in the media there has been a growing number of all electric vessels coming onto the market. These, in the main, have been launches and ‘speed-boats’ with an occasional sailing yacht build being announced with electric drive.
The big problem with operation away from shore for long periods is the ability to recharge at a rate acceptable for use. When that happens, then we will be there…
There are, of course, weight considerations of the battery packs, but like their growing use in the automotive industry, these constraints are waning with technological progress.
Another news item caught my eye. This was about a maritime innovation hub which is returning to a spring boat show at MDL’s Ocean Village Marina in Southampton.
There is a host of interesting events and companies taking part.
Areas such as low carbon fuels – hydrogen and methanol, sustainable sails and sails acting as charging units. as well as ideas on protecting the marine environment.
All very interesting giving much food for thought in these ‘end days’ of winter!
In the dark days following the New Year, a rerun of the ‘Sailing’ programme Howards’ Way, first filmed and screened in 1985, was advertised on Drama Television. The series originally ran from 1985 -1990.
My mate laughed. I smiled, for a spark of nostalgia was ignited…
I was away at sea at that time and apart from the odd episode, I did not see much of it. So, purely for historical research, I have been sporadically watching some of the first series and rather less of the second. The series appear to be running consecutively.
The programme was based around an ‘old style’ boatyard – The Mermaid Boat Yard in the Southampton area. The yard in reality is the Elephant Boat Yard.
For those that have never heard of the series or know anything about it or the boats the programme was built round, look at the following web source:
The Finesse 24 Frith awaiting hauling for keel bolt renewals at the yard. Credit: Alexis Harrison, owner.
In an early episode, I clearly saw the shapely hull of a Finesse 24 up on the yard’s hardstanding. Amazing! To cap that, a friend took his ’24’ to the yard for keel bolt renewals last autumn, showing that ‘Jack Rolf’ the Mermaid’s owner was right: there will always be a place for a good honest traditional yard…
View of the Elephant Boat Yard -courtesy of EBY web site.
The series opens with yard problems and a growing ‘community’ where sex, family infighting, double-dealing and financial intrigue swirls back and forth at every twist and turn of the tidal eddies…
However, it was the boat, the Barracuda, that has always interested me: one of the class has been in our yacht club for a number of years.
The boat, herself, has had a bit of a murky past of late, being involved with people smuggling for which the perpetrators are residing at His Majesty’s pleasure…
Summer Breeze, owned at the Island Yacht Club.
The boat was severely ‘stripped out’ by HM Customs & Excise at Ramsgate after their ‘collaring’ before eventually being placed on the market. I have to say, under new ownership, she looks a treat.
Apart from the people and the rather dubious fashionista content, central to the plot were the yachts from the yard and those early flashy motor cruisers then beginning to infest the waters marketed by ‘Ken Masters’ … a waterside dodgy dealer similar to the oft lampooned car salesman type!
The boats: The Flying Fish, a Laser 28, was the family owned yacht of the Howard. Then along came the Barracuda of Tarrant, the prototype of the Sadler Barracuda 45 a vessel which came from ‘Tom’s’ drawing board after being made redundant as an aircraft engineer. Another was the Spring of Tarrant, the prototype of the MG Spring 25. Both the Barracuda and MG Spring were in reality designed by the inimitable Tony Castro!
Sadly, the programme makers had the boat – the Barracuda – designed and built in just a few weeks worth of the first series. Of that, very little appeared on the screen and I was too slow to grab a camera shot of the first boat being laid up in resin bonded cedar round her formers. It is a system used by Ipswich builders, Spirit Yachts.
The boat’s hull, when GRP sheaved was used to make a plug used for the production of following craft in GRP. There were a few shots of the boat’s hull being laid up. Then, as if by the waft of a wand, she was launched and sailing!
Barracuda on ‘sail trials’ in 1985. Courtesy of Drama Television.
She had a lifting wing keel, carrying a large part of her ballast. The boat certainly shifts and can broad reach at well over 20 knots. Her twin rudders were a bit of a rarity back in those days but it wasn’t long before they became common-place, especially from the big French yacht makers who ‘grabbed’ the mass market that grew exponentially during the 1970s and into the 1990s. Now the mass of gleaming white GRP has reached saturation: marinas are overstuffed with oversized and underused craft!
A marina stuffed full on a gorgeous sailing day when just a few, very few, craft came and went… Dwarfed by her larger sisters’ Whimbrel has her bunting up during the 2021 Finesse Rally.
I missed an episode or so and came back in with the daughter of the boat’s fictional designer on her way across the Atlantic, sailing to New York, on a stunt. It made great television and publicised the boat. However, in reality, the yacht did not take off and fly… Only around a dozen boats came off the ways, as it were.
Sorry about the clarity – from the screen! Courtesy of Drama TV.
There was an ill-fated catamaran – it sank and blame was inferred with the designer. It turned out to have been an accident, exonerating the yard. The craft seemed to ‘disappear’ into the ether…
Most people know of the MG class of yachts. Many are still seen sailing around, although as with cars, the class boats grew in size, leaving behind a market tapped by the French and German industrially built boats, until they themselves went into ever larger craft.
Now, there are few ‘pocket’ cruisers for the first timers, who, in any case, become dazzled at boat shows and slick marketing executives, buying a 35-footer as a first yacht!
A long flat bottom section is a hallmark of this yacht and others that followed. Summer Breeze at the Island YC.
Two of this countries casualties were Sadler (the actual builders of the Barracuda) and British Hunter based at Sutton Wharf, Rochford in Essex – just down the road from me. I used to know the company’s sales executive!
Nostalgia eh.
History, perhaps, in a way.
Whatever, there is an absolute plethora of ‘stuff’ on the web about this series, dubbed, Dallas on Sea by the media. Take just a little look and let yourself smile your way into spring, and into real boating…
I have been forced to be very selective about when to go for a sail with a knee that is a little unreliable … therefore the number of times I have got out has been reduced. I am pleased in a way that the weather has helped in my decision making!
So, after helping out at our club for the early part of the morning until ‘tea break’ we readied Whimbrel and slid out as soon as the boat picked up. The tidal cycle was neaps, rising, however the tide seemed to take forever to come in and we floated later than usual for predicted tide…
Christobel tweaking the jib foot tackle…
It was a bit of a grey day but there was a decent enough breeze to make sailing worthwhile.
It was good to hear the rustle along the boat’s sides as we forged over the flooding tide. We cleared the creek and ran eastwards to abreast of the Crowstone before making a long tack inshore taking us to the Essex Yacht Club, which seemed devoid of life.
In towards the Essex.
A further long close reach took us out close into Canvey Point, passing two of the Lower Thames Rowing Club boats.
Jolly Boats!
Bird life was a little like the weather, devoid! There were a few Brents about but I suspect many of them were in amongst the winter wheat under the Hadleigh Downs. There were a couple of swooping flocks of waders in the distance over the Canvey saltings. I mused to myself about the nearness of spring: it’ll not be long before the terns are back in residence … I’ll be ‘on the beach’ by then ‘banned’ from sailing until my new knee allows.
Whimbrel was still sporting its temporary main hatch while the actual unit has been undergoing a small repair and a complete strip down and recoating. (It is now back in place, looking resplendent after nine coats of varnish)
We sailed up into the Ray to the Two Tree Island slipway where the mate took the helm. As Christobel brought the the boat round, I slipped the main down as we came through the wind, stowing it while she ran back towards the creek. A well practised procedure, as many of my crews will vouch for.
Upon entering the creek a bee-like buzzing had me searching the sky around – annoying to the extreme – and i found the source. A drone hanging just off to our starboard filming us close to. So bloody rude.
Drone hung in the air filming our activities at close hand – intrusive and damned rude.
Pity the drone wasn’t around to shots of us on an earlier January sail – they never make contact and offer a picture, unlike this person did…
Thank you David.
Whimbrel captured by a fellow Finesse sailor as we crept in during a late January sail…
It was good to get out, especially with the mate. Bless her.
Happy Valentines Day dearest, and I hope you enjoy our ‘dirty weekend’ in Faversham … I promise not to gaze too fondly at boats!
This is no longer a joke. Boaters and caravanners to an extent will be champing a the bit in frustration at the news from Calor that the small 4.5/3.9 butane/propane cylinders are discontinued as of now.
The size that has replaced these are 7kg/6kg butane/propane which are appreciably taller and will not fit most locker compartments built into boats especially. A new regulator will also be needed for the butane cylinder. The larger sized bottles are 495 x 256 mm whilst the smaller 4.5/3.9 kg butane/propane bottles are/were 340 x 240 mm. A bit of a difference.
Looking down into Whimbrel’s gas locker. Note: width 250 mm achieved by scalloping cockpit structural fore & aft member. The calor cylinder at 240 mm (nominal) diameter just slips in.
Now, I launched a ‘campaign’ last year, following on from problems of the previous year, and I asked the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to investigate and put pressure on the gas supplier.
The RYA could not even be bothered to respond to my letters (emails) so it was clear that an organisation that is supposedly looking after boating interests is not interested in the problems of its cruising members one minute jot. Gold medals is the only thing that activates them.
I terminated my forty year RYA membership in response.
During 2021 whilst away for the summer cruising on the east coast we had to change to propane due to acute shortages of the 4.5kg butane cylinders at all marinas we enquired at. Propane 3.9kg was little better, but we managed…
2021, when we were forced due to shortages of butane to change to propane. A new regulator was ready waiting to be fitted too…
The available bottles from Calor are ‘huge’ in comparison to their small bottles and there is absolutely no way for me to fit one or even two with a locker bottom above the waterline to achieve gas drainage.
Calor says: If you’re unable to increase your storage facilities, an alternative could be found through Campingaz (907 = 2.72kg). We recommend reaching out to a local gas safe registered engineer who can safely advise on any changes required to your gas cylinder set up.
Wonderful!
Camping Gaz R907 holds just 2.75kg of butane (they do not do propane) and will keep a two burner cooker going for just eight hours. Bloody wonderful.
Courtesy of ‘Getoutwithkids’ web page
Yes, the bottle which has a diameter of 203 mm will fit into gas lockers specifically designed for the Calor 4.5/3.9 (butane/propane) bottles, but this is not the point.
Aboard Whimbrel, our Calor bottles have consistently lasted around three weeks when away summer sailing. The Campingaz will need changing almost weekly in comparison and at around twice the price.
New camping gaz bottles with an exchange agreement cost around £90.00 and a refill costs anything up to £45.00
Yes, one could turn to diesel cookers. I investigated these and as a flue local to cooker is required, it would be under water when sailing….
We could go backwards and use a paraffin cooker, but, bloody heck, they take time to get going. Methylated spirit is needed – dodgy stuff – or even a meths cooker. Meths and cooking do not make good partners. No thanks…
My good mate says that tomorrow whilst out for a sail on the tide we will take a look aboard and decide where to keep a third campingaz bottle!
I will follow up…
This is the response received from Calor Gas after I sent a complaint:
Does anyone believe this. I certainly don’t!
Since writing the above, I have looked at other gas bottles on the market of the smaller sizes.
Flo Gas: has a 5 kg (patio) cylinder measuring 384 mm in height and 305 mm diameter.
Flo Gas has a Leisure 6 kg cylinder measuring 495 mm height and 256 mm diameter.
Calor have a 5 kg patio cylinder (propane) 314 mm in height and 306 mm diameter.
I found a BOC 4.5 kg propane cylinder: height 390 x 270 mm diameter, but BOC are not easy to obtain other than online/direct. Again, size is a problem.
None of the above could be fitted without major cockpit reconstruction!
It would appear that Flogas has a ‘calor’ sized bottle: Propane, height 340 mm x 240 mm diameter. It would need marinas to stock these to be of any real use.
However, I am currently investigating the possibilities of a ‘Calor’ sized cylinder with a different supplier. I will follow up…
The only alternative, as Calor say on their web site, is a Campingaz 907…
Update 17 Feb 23:Company I wrote to failed to respond – well what a surprise!
Practical Boat Owner has an article in its April 2023 issue which gives the ‘Calor Line’ but does not cover the other issues I found by talking to the marina outlets and other suppliers over the past two summers.
It is a great shame that the media and our industry did not take up this issue when it first surfaced. We have been failed by all those that supposedly look after our interests.
Article courtesy of Practical Boat Owner – April 2023 Issue.
Good luck to this coming summer. Be prepared to rejig systems, change regulators and cylinder size and ‘lash’ a bottle wherever it can be safely fitted!
The misuse of jet skis in the Lower Thames (Sea Reach), River Medway and Swale has been an ongoing and increasingly dangerous problem for many years. This of course has been a problem not just within the mentioned areas, but everywhere.
During the Covid-19 pandemic many people new to water borne activities purchased personal watercraft (jet skis) for they knew that a summer holiday abroad was an unlikely scenario.
When we were all released after the first lockdown (April-May 2020) to go afloat, the water became at times a night-mare place to be due to ‘virgin’ operators with little or no experience whizzing wherever they minded to without a care for others on the water around then.
This one chopped across our bow…
I would add that not all operators acted thus and I am sure experienced jet ski operators may well have been eaqually aghast at the antics seen.
Police were called to the Leigh-on-Sea waterfront due to adverse activities on one particular day. My wife and I were ‘cut up’, circled and suffered close passes too – which was written about at the time.
The Times newspaper even picked up on it with an article and a leader column too. The Government said that the Maritime & Coastguard Agency would be looking at the legislation and stated they would act if the regulations (law) required to be changed.
I wonder if Kelly Tolhurst, a Member of Parliament for Rochester & Strood, who was working in the ‘shipping’ Department was involved: she had direct access to The Medway & Swale Boating Association, a powerful lobby group acting for and in the interests of boaters.
There has been a couple of ‘missives’ from the Port of London Authority (PLA) on water safety, the effects of wash and draw-down which was aimed at all craft including merchant vessels in the spirit of co-existence and education.
The PLA have also successfully prosecuted mindless jet ski owners in the last few years. Picture evidence was crucial in this.
From the Marine Industry News web magazine 18 January 2023:
‘The UK is introducing new legislation to crack down on the dangerous misuse of watercraft such as jet skis, with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) being granted more powers to prosecute perpetrators of accidents.
The new law will come into force on March 31 2023, before the busy summer period, and will enable watercraft users to be prosecuted and bound by the same laws that apply to ships to help to prevent accidents.
This follows a boom in the watercraft industry during the pandemic, with the number, size, power and availability of watercraft like jet skis increasing, and their use in UK waters rising.
The government says today’s move (18 January 2023) will help ensure the UK continues to have some of the safest waters in the world.’
It should be remembered that personal watercraft were not covered by maritime safety legislation. The new law will mean those found guilty of using their watercraft in a dangerous manner could receive an unlimited fine and even up to two years in prison.
The article went on to say:
‘For those who cause accidents involving loss of life, the new offences could be used to better prosecute perpetrators alongside wider manslaughter charges.
Personal and recreational watercraft will also be bound by the “highway code of the sea” — international regulations which require users to act safely by maintaining a lookout, driving at safe speeds and outlining their responsibilities to other vessels.’
Indeed.
But, beware: the same regulation will surely cover all craft.
Best advice as an ex merchant seafarer: Keep a log, as one is duty bound to do under the current legislation.
This is not a problem just associated with jet skis. RIBs, sailing yachts (usually faster and larger) and motor boats can be a menace too.
We all make mistakes, but there are errors of judgement and plain barmy decisions…
Not always a RIB or Ski Bike. Here we were cut up by a large yacht, initially heading across our stern. She changed course and passed along starboard side. Her stern ‘passed under our bow’ as she swerved and subsequently gybed ‘behind’ our sails during which a man below leapt onto the helm – air flow deflections.
It was in the early part of the new year just a few years ago that I was alerted to the evils of Prostate Cancer while listening to BBC Radio 4’s morning programme. Again, this year there was a fresh ‘bash’ at the subject with a strong message for men.
The current UK total of cancer cases stands at around 380,000 cases per year, of that 40,000 are of the ‘Man Disease’ – Prostate Cancer. That is a little above 10% of all cancer cases.
The rough split is Men 53% of cancer cases and Women 47% of cancer cases.
(2018 Statistics).
How often do you see men as advertising targets – NOT BLOODY OFTEN.
It is about time the NHS bucks up and calls men in for testing, as women are for cervical and breast screening.
It is tragic.
Many of you will know of my story, or some of it. The whole is contained in a link below:
The BBC Radio 4 programme had a lady from a leading research charity speaking and later a ‘boffin’ who filled in the details.
There seems to be a ‘post code lottery’ but I believe this more down to reticence on the part of men.
Generally, Scotland has 1 in 3 men who when tested find that it has reached the metastatic stage – Gleason level 3 to 4. In Yorkshire and the North East of England the figure is around 1 in 5. The rest of England and Wales varied towards 1 in 8 in London. The eastern region has the more savvy men!
The cancer charity spokes person said: ‘Men should get a test regularly from around age of 45 and if a known family problem form age 40.’
Caught in the early stages, prostate cancer is highly treatable – specialist used the word curable…
Me on the ‘slab’ undergoing radiotherapy… Early stage treatment is often by drugs alone.
The specialist said that the biggest problem rests with GP practices. They do not like invasive testing. Been there! Christobel was in tears at this point…
Both guests said that although the NHS and other cancer web sites give a list of symptoms, however, it is more often than not men who have no symptoms who have the greater level of cancer when finally tested.
I had no symptoms, just a gut feeling. The information needs changing…
Now: the first test is a simple test of a blood sample – this should be offered (done) when one is called for blood tests or for any other test as a matter of course, cost is infinitely small.
If the test proves positive, a second blood test is likely. Then a knowing finger up bum feeling just inside close to the prostate is carried out. Enlargement can be detected here as well as any lumps on side felt.
Next a biopsy is carried out. Clearly, this is the test for a yay or nay… You leave the clinic smiling or bloody frightened.
NHS Wales has been carrying out a one day screening programme – probably as a trial for UK wide expansion. I don’t know how that has progressed.
The specialist also went on to say that men should ask and be demanding (I was told not allowed, so I banged the health nurses desk – that made her sit up!)
The specialist reiterated the need for men to get this test regularly to catch at earliest stage: then it often means a curative outcome.
Once the level 4 region has been reached, it is curtains.
The start of 2023 came in wild, damp and depressing, weather-wise. It also ended a very good year afloat aboard Whimbrel and I haven’t much to complain about.
2023 also marks a milestone for Whimbrel: she was ordered and largely built during 1983, forty years ago. There will be more of this later in the year.
A large job looms over us this year, well, as soon as the weather allows, for Whimbrel is to come out so that we can strip the varnish from her coach roof, sheer strake, transom and rudder.
However there is a glitch in all of this: I have been nursing a ‘poorly’ right knee for some time. To cut a long story short, at the beginning of December 2022 a knee specialist booked me in for a knee replacement – in two to three months he said…
I have ‘bone on bone’ contact in my right knee… Pain killers have been keeping me relatively mobile, if a little fractious at time!
So, I am hoping for as early a date with the saws as is possible for one can’t, or aren’t meant to, even drive for two whole months afterwards. Sailing? The ‘law’ is already being laid down…
Bloody Heck!
Knowing only a little about the procedure, I went in search on the web for some pictures!
Courtesy of Zain Ritchie -a type of replacement…
A friend has advised me not to watch a video available on the NHS web site – quite frankly, I don’t want to know…
As the New Year ticked round, I popped down to the boat on a dry period during a miserable windy and dank week to remove Whimbrel’s main hatch and fit a temporary affair I made up some time ago. I have ‘spares’ for both.
Whimbrel fitted with her spare main hatch.
It has a little work needing to be done and the outer surfaces will be stripped back to bare before re-varnishing. It has never been completely stripped…
Hatch drying out in the comfort of our conservatory!
Any way, after the poor weather during first few days of the new year, a window opened with a decent SW 3-4. It was due to increase later but after my return, so I got out afloat…
It was virtually windless in actual fact, but enough to make over the tide out of the creek. Dozens of Brent geese kept swimming across the boat’s bow, in the creek and as the moorings were left astern. I saw a Little Grebe in amongst the ochre-grey withered stalks of last year’s cord grass, hunting for its lunch.
The water’s surface was all but glass, but in the near distance a ruffling on the surface indicated greater breeze – there was.
Leaving the creek.
There was sufficient wind to get across the Leigh Flats to near the Essex Yacht Club. I reached west to the cockle sheds to get a good slant back out to the Ray. Indeed, the breeze increased somewhat and Whimbrel clipped along in flat water.
Reaching out to the Ray Channel.
A few short tacks soon had Whimbrel inside the Island’s marsh point where sails were stowed. On the way in, I tried to get at a wandering creek buoy which had lodged up against the saltings just down from my mooring a week or so ago.
Unfortunately, there was insufficient water and allied to an onshore draft, I abandoned the attempt. With a crew, I might have succeeded in hooking it clear! Hey Ho.
It was great to get out, but I missed my mate who was suffering from a bit of a cold…
Statistics from Whimbrel’s log show that 982 N. miles were covered. 45 litres of diesel were purchased and the boat was in use for 105 days of 2022. Seven different individuals have crewed aboard, plus usual two of course…
Between Christmas and New Year the BBC Radio 4 breakfast programme has a guest editor each day. Their job is to work with the programme team and introduce a subject or subjects that interest or concern them.
There were three that particularly caught my attention: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, The Head of UK Intelligence Services at GCHQ, Sir Jeremy Flemming and The Swedish singer-songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA).
All three had one commonality: the power of communication.
Nazanin recounted being allowed a television restricted to safe channels … except one safe channel showed a day at Wimbledon on the day Andy Murray won the men’s challenge cup. It gave her huge hope…
The others had far deeper communications thoughts. I loved a section where the head of UK ‘spying’ interviewed the head of US ‘spying’ – with an interesting discussion on why they both agreed to alert the world to Putin’s invasion plans earlier this year…
But, it was Bjorn Ulvaeus who caught my ear, keeping it riveted. He was having an interesting conversation with an ‘unlikely’ guest: Sir Ben Ainslie.
Now, what do the two men have in common. Not a lot at first glance, however, they do in so many ways: communications. The use of AI (a recurrent feature during the week).
Sir Ben began to outline the use of modern communications and electronic wizardry in sailing – his type of sailing.
Recent British America’s Cup entry skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie – courtesy of a Team New Zealand post.
As all or most (for I hate the term all – such as ‘…we all love football.’ No, we don’t all love football!), so, most sailing folk know a little about the America’s Cup and the fact that having lost it in the inaugural race ‘we’ have never again held it. Sir Ben was explaining the intricacies of marrying a sailing vessel to AI and what he called ‘human machine interfaces…’
Sir Ben said tech was used to improve a boat’s performance to maximise potential – my words.
The boat though isn’t really a boat. Yes it floats, but a boat in normal language, no these ‘things’ aren’t. They are machines. Flying boats or aircraft if you like, but not, to my mind, a boat.
Yes, I know one has to have a broad outlook to ‘the sport’ and some good stuff filters down, but this form of ‘sailing’ is as much connected to the run of the mill boater as Formula One motor racing is to driving a family car, even though there are numb-nuts out there who think otherwise…
And, there is a similar breed afloat now. One can see them when out on the water. They stand at the wheel of a yacht of ever greater length and girth, staring fixedly at the big screen in front of the wheel, oblivious to craft around them and their need to obey the Rule of the Road.
In the past couple of years we have had to take avoiding action to preserve our wellbeing on several occasions!
That human machine interface needs a proximity alarm that cannot be switched off…
As my good mate remarked, having heard a piece of the interview: ‘…interface…’ she quipped, ‘that’s when I’m calling the depth when you drop the anchor…’
Indeed!
One of my favourite moments and pictures of the past season: Whimbrel in close quarters with the spritsail barge Blue Mermaid. Real sailing…
Aha, here comes a little addition for on New Year’s Eve, the Today programme continuing the theme of the week had the brilliant British-Nigerian computer scientist, Anne-Marie Imafidon guest editing. She first appeared on the programme some years ago – being a child prodigy in science, maths and languages – when she took he GCSE’s at 11.
Now, we were in for a stormer: there was a preamble about the fact that so much of our lives depends on SatNav – the Global Positioning System or GPS. The mathematics for this was largely proved by Dr Glady’s Mae West (b. 1930) from West Virginia, who first came to prominence during early NASA missions. Anne-Marie talked to the great lady’s daughter and there was a snip of an interview with the venerable doctor.
Two great ladies indeed and when one considers what the Taleban in Afghanistan are doing to women and girls’ education, who knows what minds are being stunted…
The GPS system was one bit of gadgetry that has benefited us yachtsmen to a level my grandfather could never have dreamed…
But, thank you BBC Radio 4 – it has been an enjoyable week listening over breakfast whilst champing at the bit to get out o the water.
Being prevented from grabbing a sail by damned weather…
AI can’t fix that!
Happy New Year to all my readers. We both wish you well for 2023.
