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This year's show was very impressive, with lots going on including an indoor climbing competition, indoor ice climbing and most interestingly from my point of view, an indoor white water kayaking competition. As the NEC has no windows and with so much going on indoors, one could almost have forgotten the glorious sunshine and force 3 winds that existed outdoors that weekend.
Of course the show exists largely to exhibit new products and innovations in the canoeing world. On the Knoydart stand were some excellent clothes and a "Klepper like" folding sailing canoe from East German manufacturer Pouch. Knoydart also had an interesting kayak sailing rig imported from USA manufacturer Balloch. The rig by Balloch caught our eye in particular, as it was fully battened and had an interesting reefing system that used a system of zips and quick release buckles to neatly tuck away a flap of sail, while leaving the foot of the sail exposed. "Product Of The Show Award" in my book at least, went to Euro Craft who were exhibiting an inflatable spray deck for an open canoe, which attached to the boat with caravan awning track. The deck will retail for £300 and looked ideal for use in heavy weather. As Euro Craft intend to custom make each spray deck they supply, they said it would be no problem to include mast tubes.
The boat at the show that was attracting the most attention was a sea kayak on the P&H stand. This marvel of modern technology was super stiff and weighed just 15kg. Construction was vacuum bagged pre preg carbon Kevlar, around a 2mm Airex foam core. The price? Well if you have to ask...
The show provided us with plenty of opportunities to meet with old friends and new. Many of the usual OCSG suspects dropped by, along with some members who I have only met once or twice before. The show also provided us with an opportunity to meet with Stuart Fisher of Canoeist magazine. I thanked him for his continued support of the OCSG (have a look at the article in next month's Canoeist) and we were also able to arrange for Solway Dory to supply Canoeist with photos to accompany the regular reports the magazine prints of our meets.
Thanks to the OCSG members who gave up their time and paid their own petrol money, Bernard, Keith, Dave, Dave, Dave and Jan. Thanks also to AngelaO for her hospitality. (And RodL for photo - Ed.)
Act Of Parliament - Scottish Style (EddieP)
So, has this got anything to do with you? Well, possibly. For those who do not know, our cuddly Parliament up here passed one of their most audacious Acts in January. I attended the day and a half debate, and it was good fun, as usual. Basically, it was everyone on to the Tories, as it often is in our four-party PR-elected parliament. The Act is in three parts, and Parts 2 and 3 maybe we can dispense with, because they deal with the Right to Buy (land), for local communities, and crofters.
The first Part referred to access to land and water, and now, subject to a Code of Conduct, there is free access to ALL land and water in Scotland. To come down to detail, when journeying through Scotland your passage cannot be impeded, and you have access to all weirs, piers, groynes, retaining walls etc. (all detailed in the Act). Presumably, the same right might well apply to the lighting of fires and camping, although it could be sensible to ask a landowner's permission, but in sparsely populated areas, this has never been a problem. The Act received Royal Assent in mid-February, and comes into force sometime in 2004. Meantime, landowners have been asked to act in the spirit of the Act.
As an example useful to OCSG members, many will know that the exit from Loch Shiel goes down a short river and if the riparian owners were around, they used to make canoeists portage the last rapid "because they would disturb the fishing". It is now quite clear that this would be illegal; canoeists have the right to be 1) on the water 2) walk on the bank on weirs, jetties, fishing platforms, etc., etc. The fact that people are fishing and paying money for this matters not one jot. However the Code might suggest talking to anglers...
You might have not had any problem before over access in Scotland, but difficulties have been increasing, with land owned by Danes, Germans, Dutch etc. Well, we will see!
The Code of Conduct will be published in August and I'll keep people up to date with this.
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