Loch Lomond

[DBJTS]

Who is this “nice man” you speak of, has he any authority?

I’m looking at a May newsletter that has “Special Byelaw Edition” as a header and the back page has an article about inflatables.

It states that from May 21st you can only tow one inflatable up to a max speed of 30KPH because they have no directional control, this is obviously not the case with a skier or wakeboarder.

And what’s the point of having an inflatable anyway if not to test the courage & concussion recovery of your friends whilst turning hard right at flat out speeds.

[Awaken]

the nice man was in that new fancy patrol boat they have! its on the special edition news letter, absolute beast it was!

[DBJTS]

He must be misinterpreting the Byelaws as 30KPH is only 18.6MPH that’s slow for wakeboarding and effectively bans mono skiing.

[ally606]

Section 3.7 "recreational towing" for wakeboarding, airchairs, skiing , kneeboarding etc is the paragraph you need to look at. You can tow a skiier at any speed you wish provided it is withing the speed limit of the area of loch you are in.

The 30kmh limit is for biscuits, towing other boats etc and does not apply forboarders/skiiers.

Hope that clears everything up.

[DBJTS]

Finally got a definitive answer, this is an email from Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park.



With reference to your email about Byelaws 3.7(7) and the activities that are covered under the byelaw.



The byelaw refers to mechanical directional control which we feel a skier or wake boarder has, therefore we would not expect this byelaw to apply to those activities. Hope this is of use to you, if you have any further questions feel free to contact me.

[WeeStu]

Also a note that my mates in seperate boats have been stopped a couple of times for being too close to the shore (need to be 150 yards min) and the patrol guys asked to see their lifejackets. You now need CE approved lifejackets for everyone on board (and impact vests will not do) Stupidly you do not need to be wearing them only have them with you in the boat.

The patrol will not allow you to carry people if you do not have the required number of lifejackets and are policing Balloch and Inchmurrin pretty heavily. Oh and if you decide to play clever buggers and pick your friends up elsewhere on the loch and get caught after this warning it is a £500 on the spot fine apparently!

Kind of sums up these by-laws: crappy speed markers with poor lights,(borderline dangerous in poor light) no introduction of a licensing system, no skills assessment of drivers, no MOT type arrangement of the boats, no specific tackling of dangerous jet skiers, jet bikes (my pal on a sail boat had to rescue another muppet that crashed last week)

Anyways still a great and beautiful place to ride which we plan to keep on doing anyways! Roll on the weekend!

Wee Stu