[CUCBC Captains] Important: Emma Sprints Draw

[Adam Gillett]

Dear all

I'm sure everyone is aware that the river is now getting busier, as we get both shorter daylight hours and this term's novices get further in their outings.

On the river, this has led to a number of incidents over the last few days. Some of these inevitably have been in the 'grey' area where both crews involved can be seen to be partially at fault, others are more clearly the responsibility of one of the crews involved, and these are being dealt with individually. However, what is clear from most if not all of these incidents is that they involve an element of lack of suitable awareness or forethought from both the crews and coaches involved, combined with the temptation or desire to 'push the limits' a bit in order to get on a bit quicker.

In reality, this is a failure to take responsibility for these crews' actions - arguably coxes and coaches are in the best position to recognise and avoid these incidents before they happen, but the entire crew also contributes to this through their own attitude to safety. It is very easy to ignore such incidents as 'an inevitable consequence of a busy river', but I am afraid that this misses a fundamental point. If this lack of awareness and responsibility continues amongst coxes, coaches and crews, then it is inevitable that a major accident rather than a minor obstruction will occur. The direct consequences of this in terms of potential injury and long-term impact on individuals are serious enough, as are the implications of large insurance claims against clubs (or even individuals if club policies are found wanting), while this is yet another area where failure to control actions at the club, crew and individual level has the potential to lead to
 very restrictive action from other local authorities (e.g. Conservancy).

Separately, there have also been a number of incidents in recent days involving coaches and members of the public on the towpath. Again, some of these have no clear fault and have been dealt with by appropriate attitudes and actions at the time. Others have been more serious and are again being dealt with individually under our rules or by other authorities. Again, I cannot emphasise too strongly the potentially serious wider consequences of one stupid or arrogant act by an individual coach, and that clubs are responsible for the behaviour of their coaches.

Thus, this e-mail is (another) plea for the application of common sense and consideration. When we are made aware of individual incidents, along with supporting evidence, we will deal with these within our rules. But it is far more sensible to avoid them in the first place, and to do that, each club, its officers, members, coaches etc must recognise the importance of these issues and take responsibility for being in control of their own actions - this has to happen within your club, it is not something that CUCBC can do for you!

Thanks
Pete 
CUCBC Chair
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