Pond ‘too dense’ for model boats

A model boat maker’s plan to sail his toy vessel on his local pond have been thwarted by health and safety chiefs who say the water is ‘too dense’ for activities without adequate safety provision.

According to the Daily Mail, Stephen Best had hoped to use Crammer Pond in Devizes, Wiltshire.

The pond, also known as ‘Moonrakers’ because of its links to smuggling 200 years ago, lies next to a children’s playground and is only a few feet deep but the Daily Mail reports Best’s local council said it was too dangerous to sail model boats because of the ‘density’ of the water.

Thus Best has been given permission to only use his toy boat as part of organised ‘regatta’ style events – with proper health and safety procedures in place. He’s hoping to organise an event for World Pond Yacht Day on May 30.

“Everyone I’ve spoken to has been in favour,” Best told the Gazette and Herald.

Council officers are reported as fearing sailing toy boats would ‘encourage others to similarly use the pond in a less organised way’. They say the density of water ‘could prove fatal if anyone fell in whilst trying to hook out a toy boat’.

But Best thinks the council’s trepidation around the pond stems back to previous disputes. There have been fallings out over use of boats on the pond dating back decades. On one occasion a man who lived in a cottage opposite lost patience with the electric boats that were causing disruption to his TV aerial. He eventually decided to ‘launch’ bricks at the boats.

A statement from Devizes Town Council says: ‘Mr Best will be invited to book the Crammer so that he can organise regatta style events, exclusively for sailing boats (being sail-powered only) for which he must be responsible to ensure the conditions of hire are met as well as Health and Safety and general management’.

Online Daily Mail commentators are puzzled by the terminology.

“I’m sorry, but I’m still stuck at the term dense,” says one. “What the heck are they talking about? We know what heavy water is and we know that we don’t weigh water but rather talk of density. I very much doubt that they are talking about thermohaline circulation in a blooming pond. I also know that the maximum density of water occurs around 4 degrees Celsius. So, do they simply mean it’s too cold? For heaven’s sake say so.”