I guess we have a different view of the role of the escort watercraft. Beyond the steering, care and feeding of the swimmer, the escort boat is there to increase the visibility of the swimmer AND to warn off approaching watercraft. As a swimmer in the water I much prefer my escort boat captain getting on the loud speaker or horn to warn off approaching jet skis (which happened a few times in the MIMS) rather than a “safety” boat racing up and down the course trying to do a similar thing. If you have an extremely active waterway and need safety boats to block pleasure boats then you should have enough safety boats to do so without needing to race off at top speed on an interceptor run.
Well, I prefer to intercept potential threats long before they are in range of the escort boat's hailer, and whether you know it or not, as a swimmer, so do you... and certainly, so do the underwriters.
This illustrates the crux of the issue, that USMS is implying that its sanctioned events will be safer than non-sanctioned events due to some new requirements. I disagree, and swimmers will see fewer sanctioned events this season for 2 reasons.
1. The new USMS requirements simply cannot be applied to certain venues.
2. The increased fees cannot be supported by many events.
I guess we have a different view of the role of the escort watercraft. Beyond the steering, care and feeding of the swimmer, the escort boat is there to increase the visibility of the swimmer AND to warn off approaching watercraft. As a swimmer in the water I much prefer my escort boat captain getting on the loud speaker or horn to warn off approaching jet skis (which happened a few times in the MIMS) rather than a “safety” boat racing up and down the course trying to do a similar thing. If you have an extremely active waterway and need safety boats to block pleasure boats then you should have enough safety boats to do so without needing to race off at top speed on an interceptor run.
Well, I prefer to intercept potential threats long before they are in range of the escort boat's hailer, and whether you know it or not, as a swimmer, so do you... and certainly, so do the underwriters.
This illustrates the crux of the issue, that USMS is implying that its sanctioned events will be safer than non-sanctioned events due to some new requirements. I disagree, and swimmers will see fewer sanctioned events this season for 2 reasons.
1. The new USMS requirements simply cannot be applied to certain venues.
2. The increased fees cannot be supported by many events.
