CYCC response to GLA's AToN Review

• Local buoys and aids on harbour approaches & etc. are more important to yachtsmen than the GLAs' aids and their maintenance varies. GLAs have a duty to supervise local authorities' aids, so we suggest that the GLA's encourage local authorities to carry out a similar quinquennial consultation with users.
  
• The review identifies a growing volume and speed of maritime traffic, which increases collision risks for vulnerable leisure craft. We support the GLAs' work by emphasising the importance of the GLAs' aids in encouraging situational awareness by all mariners and not just as a substitute for GPS, since authoritative studies support the point (see CYCC June 2004 bulletin "Visual Aids to Navigation") and the GLAs use it to justify their work.
• The review talks about marking wind farms, so we repeat the points made by RYA and others about the need to avoid restricted areas around farms and the risks of forcing yachts and commercial traffic to share narrow traffic lanes through these installations.
• The review talks about the effect of new technology, so we note that new instruments do little to help commercial shipping identify leisure craft at a safe distance and that AIS may well make the problem worse. This is another 'situational awareness' point.
• Concerns were stated during CYCC's 2004/2005 survey of weather forecast broadcasts that many sailors would like reports of actual conditions. As the review notes that the GLAs' aids will be increasingly used to gather meteorological data, we suggest that ways should be found to make data from aids easily accessible in port and at sea.
• Small vessels' responsibilities change in Traffic Separation Schemes, because they may not impede power driven vessels and may only cross at right angles, so it is vital that borders between schemes and the neighbouring Inshore Traffic Zones are clearly identified. Accordingly, we support the GLAs' extensive marking of scheme boundaries.