A new watersports safety hub has been launched in Dundee to help promote safety in the River Tay.
The Tay Estuary Water Sports Hub, which launched on Friday, is open to all water sports bodies that use the Tay Estuary.
The hub aims to bring clubs and water safety organisations together for the first time to raise awareness and improve communication.
Concern over near-misses at sea
It comes after one of the hottest summer spells on record in the UK this month, which saw at least 10 deaths across the country.
There have also been a number of rescues locally, including at Broughty Ferry recently when children were blown out to sea on a dinghy.
The hub also hopes to encourage people to come and try water sports in a safe and controlled environment.
Chair of the Tay Estuary Watersports Hub, Stewart Murdoch, said: “There’s lots of separate water sports activities but there’s never been any collective body that brings kayakers, sailors, rowers, swimmers and the safety organisations like the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) together.
“Already there’s been benefits, for people who have needed extra safety cover for sailing, clubs have collaborated making their safety boats and their volunteer teams available.”
Mr Murdoch says they plan to introduce more training in sailing, water safety and boat handing along with providing a safety code for the estuary for all water users to follow.
The former director of Leisure & Culture Dundee added: “Most of these groups already have very good safety standards, they are regulated and one of the hopes is that people who are in unregulated water sports activities will be encouraged to join.”
Aims to tighten rules on the water
The hub also aims to incorporate individuals who regularly use the river outwith an organisation such as swimmers, paddleboarders and jet skiers.
Last year calls were made for rules to be enforced on the River Tay amid safety concerns due to ‘dangerous and reckless’ jet-skiers in Dundee.
Mr Murdoch said: “We would love for individuals like paddleboarders and jet skiers to become more involved.
“If you have a collective organisation promoting water safety and good standards of practice I think it becomes harder for people to be the kind of renegades and to take on unregulated risks.
“We will have a water safety leaflet including diagrams and charts of where you can and can’t go.
“That doesn’t mean people will behave that way but the more information that’s available, the clearer it will be when people are behaving badly.”
Mr Murdoch added that the hub has the backing of the RNLI, along with the advice from Police Scotland and the UK Coastguard.
‘Exciting development’ for city
Alison MacKenzie, Community Sport Hub officer at Leisure & Culture Dundee said: “This is the first water sports hub in Dundee and is a very exciting development for the city.
“There was a strong desire for water sports clubs to come together as a stronger organisation with a united voice so that we can bring resources together, encourage people to take part in activities in the water and help collectively to educate the public on water safety.
“There’s a lot of incidents that happen on the water so hopefully together we can help profile the water safety messages across Dundee.
“I look forward to seeing the benefits for the whole community from this collaboration.”
Member of the Dundee University Sailing Club, Nate Grundy, said joining the hub will have many benefits to the sports club.
He said: “We’re all in the same place but the interaction is quite limited so now we can get involved with the kayakers and the swimmers for example.
“The benefits are there are open communication throughout the clubs so we can set safety standards for the water, that’s quite a big one.
“There’s been times where we’ve had accidents and the RNLI have been fantastic and helped us out but I think it’s about having a bit more open communication with everyone it just makes life so much easier.
“There’s also going to be various training so we can get trained in radio so we can all get on a good base standard so that everyone’s safe on the water, having fun.”
