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Recreational Craft Directive stops the Norman Conquest.


Alan de Enfield

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When William the Conqueror set off from Normandy to invade England in 1066, it was a mammoth undertaking.

But nearly 1,000 years later, an ambitious project to sail a replica of La Mora, the flagship of his vast fleet, across the Channel is facing a new hurdle that he could have never foreseen: EU bureaucracy.

It may not look like a “pleasure boat”, but project managers rebuilding the Viking-style longship say its size means it comes under that category and therefore is subject to EU safety regulations.

That means it will only be able to leave France if the EU certifies it is fit to sail on the Channel, according to its makers.

“European standards obviously do not take into account 11th-century ships. However, La Mora’s 34-metre length makes it a large pleasure boat. We are working with the [European Commission’s] Maritime Affairs to find technical solutions to meet current safety standards,” said naval architect Marc Ronet, who is overseeing the project and drew up the initial plans for La Mora II.

Mr Ronet said the original boat was a narrow, shallow Viking-type warship, powered by oar and a 150-square metre sail. It was so fast that after setting sail from Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme on the evening of 27 September 1066, William had time to tuck into breakfast with wine before the rest of his fleet, which was carrying more than 7,000 men and 2,000 horses, caught up the next morning.

 

A 3D visual of La Mora

 

Lots more - click the link.

 

Norman conquest boat project could be dead in the water - because of EU red tape (telegraph.co.uk)

 

 

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My late brother-in-law was resident in France for more than 30 years, and when he retired he imported an "Old Gaffer" sailing boat from the US into France. Late in the day he found that boats imported into the EU had to comply with current safety standards, unless exempt. Exemption was possible if you could show that it was built to a design created before a cut-off date that I can't recall off-hand. He was able to establish that it was a type if boat designed in the 1930's, well before the relevant cut-off date, and was able to track down and buy an original copy of the issue of a contemporary American yachting magazine that contained an article that had a comprehensive descripfion and drawings of what was then a new design. Armed with this, he was able to visit the Bureau Veritas in Paris and get the necessary cerificate of exemption. Without that he would have had to modify the boat to, for example, ensure it had enough buoyancy  to keep it afloat if swamped, which was simply not possible. The exemption certificate only permitted him to sail within three nautical miles of the coast, and had he wanted to dispose of the boat within 5 years of registration, it would have been necessary to make it comply with the current regulations first. He died before the 5 year period had expired, and so when we sold it, we had to delay the official date of  sale until after the 5 year deadline had passed. 

 

So in principle, if the replica is identical with  a traditional design, it ought to be possible to get the necessary exemption from compliance with current regulations, unless the pleasure boat regulations take precedence.

 

I doubt that any engineering drawings from Norman times have survived, but I think the boats used by the Normans were much the same as those used by the Vikings, of which preserved examples exist that could be used to demonstrate that a new boat was being built to a traditional design.

Edited by Ronaldo47
typos
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3 minutes ago, Barneyp said:

I thought the same, and was confused as I thought Norman Boats went out of business in the 1980's

 

I have a feeling that they are mixed up with Seamaster - I have no idea what company holds the molds and rights, but I am sure at some London boat shows I have seen both on the same stand and with similar corporate design features. However, as I am not interested in outboard powered craft I payed little interest.

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Another bit of EU bashing sneaked out of the politics section by Alan as usual?

The actual sailing of the ship (which hasn't started being built yet) seems to be a small part of quite a large tourist project based on maritime archeology, itself, in this case, being about as authentic as a Sealed Knot battle. The trip to England seems to have been entirely invented by the Telegraph.

https://www.la-mora.org/en/

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Yes. The RCD problem seems to have been overblown. From the project website:

 

"The reconstruction is intended to be as authentic as possible, whilst also enabling Mora to be approved by Maritime Affairs so she can head out to sea !"

 

"The second challenge relates to the certification of the boat as European standards obviously don’t take into account boats from the 11th century. However, measuring 34 m in length, Mora ranks as a long-distance cruising boat! Together with Maritime Affairs, we’re trying to come up with technical solutions to satisfy modern day safety standards."

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10 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

That means it will only be able to leave France if the EU certifies it is fit to sail on the Channel,

The current record of stopping boats leaving France if they are not fit to sail the channel suggests this may only be a theoretical problem. :detective:

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7 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

The current record of stopping boats leaving France if they are not fit to sail the channel suggests this may only be a theoretical problem. :detective:

 

 

I've no idea what you could possibly mean by all that, given this is not the politics board!

 

I do hope you are not suggesting the French have not checked the occasional migrant boat leaving their shores is not fully RCD certified, with exactly the right sort of window glass and definitely no 2.5 T&E cable installed.

 

An outrageous slur on them French authorities if you are.

 

 

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The problem is it is over 20m so needs to comply with the community certificate. Originally lobbied for by the Dutch and German commercial operators to stop the polish and Rumanian barges undercutting them. Being the eu they produced a 420 page set of regulations for every boat over 20m and gave a few years grace for these to be complied with. This has now passed and no exceptions are now allowed. However as this is a French project there will be no problem.

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Pretty sure I looked at every single page on la-mora.org and couldn't see a single reference to any plans to sail across the channel in her. Indeed, there's only a single reference of sailing her at all, briefly mentioning the need to satisfy modern safety standards, which... seems like a good thing to me? Not sure why the torygraph felt the need to fabricate this 'plan' to sail across the channel but whatever I guess

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17 minutes ago, sigsegv said:

Pretty sure I looked at every single page on la-mora.org and couldn't see a single reference to any plans to sail across the channel in her. Indeed, there's only a single reference of sailing her at all, briefly mentioning the need to satisfy modern safety standards, which... seems like a good thing to me? Not sure why the torygraph felt the need to fabricate this 'plan' to sail across the channel but whatever I guess

So that the then Home Sec (probably abut ten down the line given recent performance) can claim  that they have stopped a dangerous invasion of warships from the continent.

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4 hours ago, Barneyp said:

I thought the same, and was confused as I thought Norman Boats went out of business in the 1980's

They did. It was something to do with the price of fibreglass  resin caused I think by the oil crisis of the seventies, plus the market for grp cruisers by then was largely saturated.

The Norman 24 was resurected as the Atlanta 24 and there are still loads of Norman boats around.

The most popular was the Norman 20,at any one time if you look on various forums and websites there are usually dozens of Norman 20's for sale.

The Norman Conquest was not quite as popular, it was the same hull, but was centre cockpit with two very small cabins.

They were all usually outboard powered, but a few had inboard petrol or diesel engines with an outdrive.

I have seen one or two used for offshore fishing so were reasonable sea boats.

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4 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

The problem is it is over 20m so needs to comply with the community certificate. Originally lobbied for by the Dutch and German commercial operators to stop the polish and Rumanian barges undercutting them. Being the eu they produced a 420 page set of regulations for every boat over 20m and gave a few years grace for these to be complied with. This has now passed and no exceptions are now allowed. However as this is a French project there will be no problem.

I seem to recall a potential issue being raised for full length narrowboats as they are over 20m long, but I can't now remember what the issue was. Anyway it doesn't seem to be a problem.

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5 hours ago, David Mack said:

I seem to recall a potential issue being raised for full length narrowboats as they are over 20m long, but I can't now remember what the issue was. Anyway it doesn't seem to be a problem.

  Never recall ever seeing a full length narrow boat on the continent but the rule is over 20m or 100sq feet they are pretty black and white .

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4 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

  Never recall ever seeing a full length narrow boat on the continent but the rule is over 20m or 100sq feet they are pretty black and white .

 

Is there the choice of which measurement is applied ?

 

A 20 metre boat is ~66 feet, so if the measurement is taken as square feet then the boat could be only 1 1/2' (18") beam 

 

A 100 sq feet boat could be only a maximum size of ~ 14' long x 7' beam

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