The French Authorities strike again...
Whilst waiting in Gravesend and making final preparations for our latest English Channel crossing with Mark Carr’s team (due to leave on 26th June), we received an email from the French authorities prohibiting the attempt! This time siting two differing reasons.
* The rowing boats now have to be self-baling if they are to be allowed more than two miles from their coast, and
* People powered vessels also have to be capable of being propelled quickly enough under their own steam to avoid collisions with bigger and more cumbersome vessels.
While this sounds reasonable, the same arguments have already been discussed at various levels and that is why we provide Safety Boats to negate both reasons for refusal. If the weather conditions are poor enough for the boat to need self-baling, then we will already have called the event off and, if the rowing boat gets close enough to impede larger shipping our Safety Boats have not done their job properly so neither argument is valid in our opinion.
We had advised the French Authorities of our intentions as required, in French and English - delivered by post (apparently they don’t accept emails) applied for consents both in April and May. They replied three days before the event - in French, by email!!! (They only do email when it suits them then...)
However, this does mean that unless or until these points are rectified and agreement is obtained that any such crossings can continue we are regretfully cancelling any and all English Channel Crossings. This includes any L2P2L events.
Our efforts will now be directed at any other Extreme Rowing Challenges you or we can come up with.
We have set up our new website which details all these new challenges.
www.extremerowingchallenges.com
We already have FULL permission and the blessing of our own authorities to run these events.
TIGER IS NOW MOORED AT RICHMOND READY FOR YOU TO HIRE FOR TRAINING EVENTS! Give us a call or email to book your team sessions.
