Adventure sailing under threat

Chilean rescue authorities on the campaign trail to severely limit 'adventure sailing'.

A proposal to the International Maritime Organisation by Chile's rescue authorities over the problems caused by 'adventure craft', has caused a wave of angst to be sent through various sailing bodies around the world. At present the proposal leaves the term 'adventure craft' undefined and so could conceivably include yachts.

As Chairman of the ISAF International Regulations Commission, Mike Devonshire plays a key role in this. He leads the ISAF delegation to IMO, where ISAF have 'organisational non-government status'. Remarkably, ISAF is the only small boat organisation to be represented on the all-important IMO.

Devonshire says that although 'adventure craft' wasn't defined "an earlier paper two years ago had jumped up and down about a Frenchman who had tried to canoe around Cape Horn in the middle of winter." This had cost the Chilean search and rescue (SAR) authorities a great deal of money as the Chilean navy had to go and rescue them.

Ironically France have some of the world's most stringent regulations governing what can and can't be done at sea and yet distinctly at odds with this is that per capita they have the most madcap individuals wanting to row or swim across oceans, not to mention sail singlehanded around the world or race 21ft skiffs across the Atlantic. At present legally you can paddle a canoe from England to France but not from France to England for example. Similarly the Mini Transat must get a special dispensation from the Affaires Maritimes and a government minister before it can be held, which would not be the case if it were to start in the UK.

Alongside Australia and New Zealand, Chile is in the unfortunate position of being responsible for one of the largest search and rescue areas. Their patch covers almost a quarter of the Pacific Ocean. Although this is probably one of the areas of the planet with the least density of maritime traffic, its sheer size can make mounting any rescue mission a most costly affair.

The Chilean proposal put to COMSAR, IMO's Communications and Search and Rescue committee and their Safety of Navigation committee states that there should be some form of control on adventure craft leaving ill equipped or on ill planned trips.

"They are suggesting there should be some minimum equipment regulations and so on," says Devonshire. "But the real problem is ‘permission to leave’ and a substantial financial bond or guarantee to cover the cost of being rescued if you have to be rescued. The proposal did not seem to be very well conceived and they never defined ‘adventure craft’, but they did refer in one of the annexes of the paper that ‘boats should be equipped to ISAF Ocean Racing standards’. Well, if you want to paddle a canoe or row across the Pacific it would be jolly difficult to equip a boat to ISAF special regulations..."

Singlehanded offshore racing has been dragged into this, because of the carnage ridden Route du Rhum. Yes, they were struck by terrible weather and many of the trimarans which got into difficulties made a point of not involving the rescue authorities, but some were forced to. Less forgivable were the two collisions between Open class monohulls and commercial vessels off Ushant.

"Being the cautious chap that I am, I realised that what starts off with stopping people rowing bathtubs across the channel can end up with a restriction on singlehanded sailors going around the world," said Devonshire. "And I know that concern has been expressed by other maritime administrations over singlehanded racing - and ISAF to some extent is concerned about it - because inevitably it means a breach of the Collision Regulations. ISAF has not yet formulated its policy but it will do so at the May meeting."

Most sailing bodies are torn between singlehanded offshore racing being technically illegal under the Colregs but equally producing some of most high profile sailors from Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Sir Chay Blyth, Sir Alec Rose, Sir Francis Chichester to Miss Ellen MacArthur - all of whom have in some way been honoured by the Queen. [Read more about this old chestnut here]

If singlehanded offshore racing were to be dragged into the remit of the Chilean proposal then it is almost certain that singlehanded or shorthanded cruising yachts could end up being treated in the same way too.

The International Regulations for the Prevention of Collisions at Sea is sacred ground for IMO and yet is well overdue to be updated as at present it is riddled with pitfalls, particularly regarding what constitutes a proper look-out. Failure to keep a proper look-out is said to be the cause of 90% of collisions at sea, yet for IMO to start pointing the finger at sailing yachts or singlehanded yachts would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Abuse of the ColRegs in the commercial shipping world could not have been highlighted better than December's demolition derby in the Dover Straits following the collision of the car transporter Tricolor and the Kariba, a container ship. Severely damaged, the 50,000 ton Tricolor was sunk in shallow waters off the Kent coast. Two days later she was collided into by the 3,000 ton Nicola. Then the Vicky, a Turkish 43,000 ton tanker laden with kerosene ran over her and was stuck on the Tricolor for several hours on New Year's Day, despite the car carrier by this stage being surrounded by buoys and radar beacons.

Then there was the case in 1999 when the Norwegian cruise liner, the Norwegian Dream collided with the stricken Taiwanese cargo ship the Ever Decent. At the time the officer on watch on the Norwegian vessel was emptying the waste bin.

While the Chilean proposal is heading in a direction where 'adventure craft' could include yachts, Devonshire's personal view is that ultimately he doesn't think it will. "Everyone is saying it is alright provided people abide by ISAF special regs."

He also feels that there is little mileage in the Chileans complaining about having to rescue private craft. "It came up 18 months ago this question of charging for search and rescue and there was a very clear IMO decision that your obligation always has been, and always will be to go and rescue anyone in trouble at sea and you don’t expect to get paid for it. If you can pick some salvage on the way that’s alright. But your prime obligation is to save lives at sea and I can’t see that changing it at all."

Shortly after Christmas the Chileans spent a week looking for a German 40ft yacht with a husband and wife crew that had sent an EPIRB distress message 300 miles to the west of Chile. The crew were experienced, the yacht well found, but the SAR attempt never located them. "There is no suggestion by anyone that they were doing anything wrong, I think it is aimed at the man who wants to go across the ocean in a barrel," says Devonshire of the South American's proposal.

The Chileans are not alone in complaining about their SAR duties. New Zealand has tried to ensure that cruising yachts including foreign flagged vessel are properly equipped and crewed once in their water. This was subsequently overturned in the New Zealand High Court who deemed it unconstitutional and contravened the United National Convention on the Law of the Sea. Similarly in Australia there was a major outcry about the cost of the rescues of Isabelle Autissier and subsequently Tony Bullimore and Thierry Dubois from the depths of the Southern Ocean during singlehanded round the world races.

Devonshire says that nothing is going to happen quickly in respect of the Chilean paper. Indeed, thankfully IMO seem to operate at a snail's pace. "If it doesn’t come up in the early part of June at the safety of navigation committee, it will first be raised this time next year at COMSAR or the following summer in the Safety of Navigation committee if they have got nothing more pressing to do."

Aside from the possible implications of the Chilean proposal The Daily Sail feels it is extraordinary that the International Maritime Organisation with all its power and might should have just one sole representative of the small boat community part of it.