.: Duncan Kent
(Editor - Sailing Today Magazine - United Kingdom)
Approached Duncan Kent (and
Roger Witt, Managing Editor) on 17th July 2008
via e-mail as follows:
Dear Mr. Kent and Mr. Witt,
You may be interested in our latest website and, more
importantly, the aim of it, which is to try and get some
special dispensation (from the European Parliament) for
live-aboard cruisers, to protect the lifestyle from the
rising costs and reducing lengths of stay permitted at what
have been freely accessible anchorages for centuries, all
over Europe, many of which are either already buoyed off and
charged for exorbitantly or are being earmarked for this
treatment.
We have very recently launched www.freeseapass.co.uk to try
and do something about it before it is too late.
Best regards,
Linnet Woods and Keith 'Robbie' Robinson
Schooner Leopard Normand III
P.S. Feel free to help spread the word - we are squeezing
this effort in between earning our living and fixing the
heads, cleaning seagull droppings off the decks and looking
for the wretched torch which neither of us will admit to
having put anywhere but the proper place :-)
We received the following e-mail from
Duncan Kent on 18th July
2008:
Dear Linnet
Having spent a large part of my younger years living on board an
old, leaky wooden cruising boat in the Med, unable to afford to
stay in marinas or even on buoys, I have every sympathy with
your plight. However, the world has changed over the years and
people now appear to put money and possessions above all else in
life.
Sadly, though, I feel you are onto a loser with this admirable
scheme. However hard you try to put your case, ‘yachties’ will
always be considered wealthy, no matter if they only have a few
pennies to rub together after keeping their boats in good
running order. This is primarily because you have not chosen to
follow the usual working pattern drummed into us at a
very early age, so those that have toed the line and become
members of the ‘working class’ will always feel resentment
towards those who seemingly spend their days swanning around
beautiful places in yachts.
A case in point – I had a furious letter from a reader only last
week saying how dare one of our long term cruising contributors
suggest that we should sell up and go sailing rather than wallow
at home in the recession misery.
‘Somebody has to stay home to make the bits that keep your yacht
going’ he stated, ‘so don’t come all high handed with us stay at
home workers, who are sweating away at the grindstone to keep
you in the manner to which you are accustomed – ie sitting
around in the sun all day living off the workers of the world!’
But mainly, we are starting to be seen as a convenient way of
making money. If you have a bucket of water in the desert, you
are king! Or, to put it in a more relevant terms – if you can
prove ownership of the seabed, riverbed or waterside land, you
are entitled to charge others to use it. This has been taken to,
and proven in court many times in the UK. As to whether the
use of Nationally-owned territorial seabed below the tide mark
can be charged for is debatable, but in theory, I suppose, the
Queen could actually charge you for dropping your hook onto her
land!
We live in a capitalist free-market Europe, where anyone who
sees the chance of making a quick buck is entitled to, providing
he/she isn’t breaking the law in the process. So if the Italians
decide they want to charge you €40 to anchor off their coast,
what can you do? Personally I think it will all backfire soon,
as in my experience less and less folk are chartering or
cruising in Italy precisely because of the cost of
anchoring/mooring. However, the Greeks & Turks have taken a
different stance – I charter frequently in the Ionian or Aegean
and are rarely charged for berthing or anchoring. This means I
can afford to go ashore every night and spend my money in the
bars and restaurants ashore – helping to keep more locals in
employment.
So there is always two sides to any argument and the best way we
cruising boat dwellers can help is by voting with their feet –
or anchors. I could tie the magazine’s resources up for decades
trying to fight the overbearing EU bureaucracy, but all it will
result in is more government interference - I am convinced. The
more you alert the pen-pushers to an ‘as yet untapped’
tax resource, the more they will poke their noses into the
trough!
So, for this reason Linnet, I’m afraid I don’t think there’s
anyway I, or the magazine can help. It’s like the ‘license to
sail’ threat that’s forever hanging over boat owners in the UK –
if the media start blathering on about it, then sure enough it
will happen sooner or later. As the great philosopher JL Seagull
once said ‘ Argue for your limitations and soon
enough they will be yours’.
Best of luck with your campaign anyway.
Cheers, Duncan
Duncan Kent
Editor
Sailing Today
Swanwick Marina
Southampton SO31 1ZL
T: 01489 585224
E: editor@sailingtoday.co.uk
W: www.sailingtoday.co.uk
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We responded via e-mail on 18th July 2008 as follows:
Dear Duncan,
Your wise e-mail contains many good points and much food for
thought! To your irate reader I would say that it is just as
well there is a yachting industry as it provides work for a
great many people around the world and, in his shoes, rather
than resent being a part of that industry I would be very glad
it was providing me with work!
Whilst I am aware that the perception of 'yachties' in many
circles is erroneous this only makes me want to do more to
disabuse the general public of some of their misconceptions.
Just as all house-owners are not in the same wealth category, so
boat-dwellers vary widely. Indeed, many of those of our
acquaintance work very hard for a living and do not get to
venture far from their own waters because of work commitments.
We are perfectly able to accept that marinas will probably be
built in all the best bays, over time, eliminating more and more
options for anchoring folk, in the name of 'development' and
'commerce' but, as you point out, 'ownership' of the sea bed is
not so certain and we feel it would be best to establish what is
what before it is too late and every available bay has been
buoyed off.
Voting with one's keel is a luxury that many sea-dwellers cannot
afford as they are in employment, in their own country or that
of a European partner country, and it is some of these families
that prompted us to start the campaign.
Unfortunately, local bar, restaurant and shop owners do not get
to say whether or not bays should be buoyed off, although they
would probably join the campaign if they were aware of the
amount of business they stood to lose as a result of this
activity.
Were the buoying off of bays not already happening, I would be
the last to mention it but local authorities have already
discovered this means of enriching their coffers so putting our
heads in the sand would not stop anyone from doing it
whilst campaigning for fair treatment of sea-dwellers may ensure
that only those whose boats are recreational-only are asked to
contribute large fees. At 20€ per day, a holiday-maker is
going to spend between 100€ and 560€ say, and being
able to afford a pleasure boat plus being in holiday mood, would
probably not mind much, whilst a sea-dweller (if allowed to stay
put in the first place) would be spending 7300€ in the
course of a year! Since many sea-dwellers earn less than double
that amount per annum, this would make it impossible for them to
cope.
Anyway, you are as right in your opinions as I in mine, I fear
and who knows what the outcome will be - on the subject of
licenses to sail, the Spanish are obliged to go through all that
and it doesn't stop some of them from being rotten sailors so
the only argument for it would be the opportunity for the
authorities to fleece people who would like to sail, reducing
the opportunity for working people on limited incomes to get out
on the water even further!
May I publish your e-mail on the Free Sea Pass website? If I
understood the paragraph at the bottom of your e-mail correctly
I can, but I thought I'd better check with you first - I'm only
a humble sea-dweller and can't afford to be sued!
Best regards,
Linnet
P.S. Didn't your quotation from Richard Bach (author of JL
Seagull) come from another of his works,'Illusions'?
Duncan Kent responded immediately via
e-mail as follows:
Linnet
I wasnąt absolutely sure where the quote came from it just
popped into my mind as they do sometimes! It sounded like Bach,
so forgetting Illusions I assumed it was JLS.
Anyway, go ahead and post my email. However, I am usually very
busy so donąt get much chance to join on-line debates should
one arise.
Once again Good Luck!
Cheers, Duncan
We responded immediately as follows:
I only know because it's one of my favourites... another from
the same source is "You teach best what you most need to learn",
in fact everything in the Messiah's Handbook is pretty much to
my liking!
Debates? Oh no, we're not going to allow any of those on our
website :-)
Thanks, Duncan - have a great summer!
Linnet
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