h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Just after Ellen won the most recent race I heard that Maritime law says it is illegal to have a boat at sea without a lookout to avoid collisions with other boats/ships etc.

Hence, everyone in single handed boat races are beaking the law everytime they go to sleep during the race or even go below decks.

Is this correct? Is there special dispensation for these races?

And if it is technically against the law (because people could be killed) why are we making a law breaker into a Dame? (yes, stirring it a little with this question if it is relevant.)

That's really intersting, I had no idea. Can't help you with that I'm afraid, I have no idea. Maybe it's an archaic law? For instance, it's still law in the UK for all males between certain ages to practice archery on a Sunday - it's never been repealed. Maybe it's something like that?

I do not think it is archaic law as piling one boat into another can kill people just as easily now as it could do hundreds of years ago.

Someone know on this site!

True. I just meant that it may not be enforced anymore. I suggest you try Ask h2g2 if you really want to know.

I asked my brother, a master mariner and expert of maritime law:
"You are absolutely right and this was a continuing hot potato when I worked for the Coastguard agency. The official but reluctant policy seems to be to turn a blind eye to these high-profile sailors - this has been the case since singlehanded races started years ago. She also broke the collision regulations by having a high intensity strobe light on her mast which is strictly prohibited - but no action was taken.
Personally I think they are all mad. Having been on much bigger ships I would never dare go to sleep alone on a small sailing boat!

Ellen MacArthur won accolades, praise, lots and lots of money as well as a damehood (or whatever it is called) for her philanthropic and public spirited work in sailing round the world single-handed faster than anyone else.
As previously mentioned, maritime law required any boat at sea to have a lookout but she also broke the collision regulations by having a high intensity strobe light on her mast which is strictly prohibited. Is the special dispensation or official ‘blind eye’ turning on the grounds that single-handed sailing does so much good for the world and humanity as a whole that it is worth risking the lives of other sailors who are forced to obey the law? Maybe the assumption is that if anything hits you - a supertanker for instance – the single-handed sailor is unlikely to scratch the paintwork and if it is another sleeping single-handed sailor they both deserve what they get.
However, the law is the law, whether you like it or not and if it is against the law (to my simple mind a perfectly sensible law as it protects other sailors) it is odd to make a Dame of a proven lawbreaker. If you tried to raise sponsorship to race a car across America, at night, with not lights, you’d likely end up in chokey. Ellen MacArthur is not the first person to be ‘honoured’ for flagrantly breaking the law in this way. Can anyone suggest a reason why?

In reply to Elentari, being a British male ‘between certain ages’, I am very glad that there is a law preventing me from practising archery on Sundays

Many thanks James.

Don't you fancy spending every Sunday shooting a 6 foot longbow, just in case we go to war with France again?

Anyway James, perhaps you misread that - it doesn't prevent you, it's the law that you have to practice on Sundays. Being a woman, I don't. Though I do like archery.

More weird and wonderful facts courtesy of Elentari:

Did you also know it's illegal to kill a swan in the UK? They all belong to the Queen.

Yes I did thanks but if one flies into power lines by your house and kills itself, it is illegal to eat it as
the Queen's composer, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, found out (see The Guardian, Saturday March 19, 2005).

I just like to have a cast iron excuse NOT to practice archery on Sundays - I am not sure whether it infringes any regulations in Morocco!

Oh, I see. Sorry. Thanks for that about the composer, that's ironic!

But what about Dame Ellen? Are we just going to turn a blind eye as well?

Well, yes. That's a tricky one. Presumably she must have known it was illegal, but it seems that all the ocean racers do it - thoguh that's not an excuse.

That's a tricky one. Presumably she must have known it was illegal, but it seems that all the ocean racers do it - thoguh that's not an excuse.
"Sorry guv - i needed a cuppa"

Ooooo, freaky! I am setting up a quiz and doing a month by month round.

Februarys question is who broke the round world sailing record. As a follow up I will ask what Maritime Laws did she break. So, to check she did actually break them I stuck 'Ellen MacArthur Maritime Law' into google. The second hit on it is this thread!!! And, of course, I was asking the question. Wierd!

Its suprising how manu times this site comes up when googling stuff.