.: Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP
( Liberal Democrat - London)
Approached Baroness Sarah
Ludford MEP
on 6th July 2008 via e-mail with a letter of introduction
and again on 10th July 2008, also via e-mail, with an
apology for technical site problems.
We received the following e-mail from
Baroness Sarah Ludford on 28th July
2008:
Dear Mrs Woods
Thank you for writing to me about live-aboard sailors and the
problems with safe havens on Europe’s coastlines.
Yours has been the only correspondence I have received on this
matter. However, I understand you have also contacted the other
10 UK Liberal Democrat MEPs, whose staff my office has liaised
with.
I also note that my colleague Liz Lynne has tabled a question on
the matter. I look forward to seeing the answer.
I would be grateful if you could tell me whether increased costs
for anchorage were related to a greater provision of services at
marinas.
Thank you again for your email. I will remain in contact with
Liz Lynne’s office over this matter.
Yours sincerely
Sarah
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP
We replied, via e-mail on 28th July
2008, as follows:
Dear Baroness Ludford,
Please forgive my having addressed you incorrectly in my
previous e-mails - it is to be hoped I have not inadvertently
done so again in this one!
Thank you so much for your e-mail of today and the kind interest
you have shown in this problem.
Anchoring was entirely free of charge in most natural bays for
many centuries. Gradually, in recent years, local authorities
have taken notice of bays that are popular with sailors and
marinas have, understandably, been constructed in quite a few.
Nonetheless, this always left plenty of safe anchorages from
which to choose but, in recent years, a trend towards seeing
yacht-owners as potential sources of income from every angle has
begun to take root.
In some cases, buoys have been put down to protect corals, for
example, on the sea bed from potential damage and use of those
buoys encouraged, again understandably. In other cases, buoys
have been laid down in muddy or sandy-bottomed bays in order to
enable more yachts to fit into the available area, since a
mooring buoy permits a yacht to be tethered on a relatively
short rope as opposed to anchoring which requires considerable
space between boats (to allow for the laying out of sufficient
chain to keep the yacht from dragging it's anchor along the
sea-bed, with potentially disastrous results if any object
happens to be behind the vessel and the fact that the boat will
swing round with the wind as it changes.
Whilst some local authorities make these buoys (each of which
is, incidentally, relatively inexpensive to deploy, consisting
of a concrete block with a steel eye embedded in it, to which a
floating plastic ball is attached by a length of line that
allows for tidal variations and can be picked up with a boat
hook so that the vessel can be tied to it) available at no
charge or a nominal fee, more and more of them are charging
hefty sums to use them.
Typical prices in Italy are 40 euros and, in Spain, 20 euros per
day. Visitors to some bays are informed that, if they elect not
to use a buoy (in an area that is not ecologically compromised
and where anchoring would do no harm), but instead to anchor as
always, they will be charged a fee even though they are obliged
to anchor out beyond the buoys where there is less shelter
because the sheltered areas are full of buoys. To add insult to
injury, visitors are also told, in some bays, that their stay
may not extend beyond a few days.
A few authorities allow a free stay of three days but,
thereafter, charge a sizeable amount of money.
Apart from a mooring buoy (if that) no other services whatsoever
are on offer in these bays. One is being asked to pay for the
privilege of simply being there, even as I mentioned earlier,
when not using a buoy. Corporate and charter yacht skippers tend
to cheerfully hand over their employers' money because it makes
no difference to them personally and it has begun to be assumed
that everyone can afford to pay high prices.
This is not just a problem pertaining to visiting yachts - local
sailors, too, are expected to pay up. In some places, they are
being asked to pay the equivalent of a day's wages per day!
Marinas cost a great deal of money to build and most provide a
range of services for which one generally expects to pay
handsomely if one wishes to enter. The majority of live-aboard
sailors avoid all but the very few relatively inexpensive
marinas that remain, with the exception of short visits to
purchase fuel and water, effect repairs and maintenance that
cannot be undertaken in open waters or to leave the boat in safe
hands for a few days or weeks while they visit family ashore or
abroad or fulfil a work commitment that requires being away from
the vessel.
Many marinas do not permit anyone to remain aboard at night
anyway, which would make it impossible for liveaboards to use
them on anything other than a very short-term basis if, indeed,
they desired to be staying in the equivalent of a floating car
park anyway!
In a few cases, the local harbourmaster will try to push the
owners of yachts anchored safely inside or outside harbours in
areas clearly marked on nautical charts with an anchor sign (and
that are not in the way of any traffic nor creating any kind of
nuisance) into occupying berths in the marina within the
harbour, in the mistaken belief that this is the only way the
locality can extract money from them.
This is, of course, a nonsense, since live-aboard sailors have
to eat, like anyone else, and tend to spend money with a variety
of businesses ashore, all of which will be filtering a portion
of the income derived therefrom into the tax coffers. If not
allowed to remain anchored outside a harbour but still within
sensible reach of the shops, most will simply go elsewhere,
taking that revenue with them.
In short, anchoring was gratis for centuries, presumably on the
basis that the sea belongs to everyone and the boat-owner is
providing all the equipment required. The custom of charging for
the right to anchor is recent and, frankly, symptomatic of the
new culture of greed that has, sadly, started to pervade Europe.
One other consideration that may be worth bearing in mind is
that, in general, the look of a bay full of garish plastic buoys
is an unsightly view both for people on boats and those whose
homes ashore have windows facing that way, Those who manufacture
these buoys have, no doubt, a vested interest in convincing
local authorities that this is the future of yachting.
Live-aboard sailors do not deserve to be alienated from safe
havens in the name of 'progress' or 'income streams'.
My humble apologies for making such a long-winded reply but I
hope this sheds a little light on the subject.
Thank you again for your kind interest.
Best regards,
Linnet Woods
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