Hey gang,

I had a sail down at margies between christmas and the new year.
What I noticed was that the brand new fence posts attached to the brillant new handrails and steps are really dangerous.
I saw one almost nasty accident, 1 ripped sail and and am worried there will be much carnage into the future.

The height of the non functional fence post tops that go well beyond the hand rail snag your sails and harness loops very easily.
Also the fence is quite tall which means your rig is not easily controlable as you hold it high above your head.
I can imagine women and shorter blokes would struggle.
The incident I saw happen to my mate occured because he got snagged and a tourist tried to help him (without being asked) causing the rig to power up and threw him backwards. His arm got jammed between the fence posts and is lucky to have avoided more damage than some solid bruising.

Overall i met a few sailors who were pissed off with the fence posts and were concerned for the safety of the tourist who drop down for a look as well as the safety of the sailors.

I'd suggest the posts be chopped down to just above the handrail height and a capping rail be placed ontop to prevent the snagging of equipment and body parts.

So a nice heads up to you all just to be super carful and maybe consider riggin up on the beach rather than uptop.

Is there anyone at the margs council who we should be spreaking to, in order to get them changed while construction is still going on down there, otherwise i'm sure the latest range of battery powered power tools might ruin what could be a great thing.

Cheers

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Bertie said..

Hey gang,

I had a sail down at margies between christmas and the new year.
What I noticed was that the brand new fence posts attached to the brillant new handrails and steps are really dangerous.
I saw one almost nasty accident, 1 ripped sail and and am worried there will be much carnage into the future.

The height of the non functional fence post tops that go well beyond the hand rail snag your sails and harness loops very easily.
Also the fence is quite tall which means your rig is not easily controlable as you hold it high above your head.
I can imagine women and shorter blokes would struggle.
The incident I saw happen to my mate occured because he got snagged and a tourist tried to help him (without being asked) causing the rig to power up and threw him backwards. His arm got jammed between the fence posts and is lucky to have avoided more damage than some solid bruising.

Overall i met a few sailors who were pissed off with the fence posts and were concerned for the safety of the tourist who drop down for a look as well as the safety of the sailors.

I'd suggest the posts be chopped down to just above the handrail height and a capping rail be placed ontop to prevent the snagging of equipment and body parts.

So a nice heads up to you all just to be super carful and maybe consider riggin up on the beach rather than uptop.

Is there anyone at the margs council who we should be spreaking to, in order to get them changed while construction is still going on down there, otherwise i'm sure the latest range of battery powered power tools might ruin what could be a great thing.

Cheers

I am sure if you phone the council they will put you onto the right person. Any talk of personal injury and they will be onto it.
Failing that , the threat of an unprofessional job with battery powered tools really works!
We just had a new fence put in by a neighbour which was most unsatisfactory on our side. They didn't want to do anything about it but when my husband offered to make alterations with his blunt tools they quickly changed their mind!

this is the augusta margaret river shire you are dealing with. It will be pretty hard to get them to do something right.

has anyone dealt with getting a council to change something they commissioned before?

because as a minority group i can see this issue being ignored by the shire.

I've see many people loose control of their equipment this year and my brand new board is now home to many paint chips thanks to these new railings.

maybe if we start sending invoices to the shire for damage they will do something?

I have dealt with councils and I know they can be stubborn and slow moving, but where there is risk of personal injury they will be onto it. In these litigious times they can't afford not to. They will be glad to be informed of the risk before being sued for public injury. And if they are informed and do nothing and then someone is injured, the council will really be in trouble.
Some years back my son broke his arm at a local playground. I rang the council (Melville) to let them know there was no soft fall substrate at that playground - not to complain or to threaten but to let them know of the need, and they were onto it within the day.

I would suggest a phone call to get your concern heard now rather than a letter which will become an agenda item in some weeks/ months.
I think the Shire Engineer would be the one to speak to. They usually oversee all these works and the engineering department will have done the design. Plus engineers are practical, down to earth people.
Congratulate them on what they have done right - the excellent stairs and handrails or whatever. Outline the problem focussing on the personal injury risk, and suggested fixes (if you have one) and what does not need to be changed. Comment that you thought they'd like to know while it was all still under construction so alterations would be easy.

No one wants to hear their design is not well thought out, but they'd still like to find out before someone gets hurt.