Dear Editor,
During January ’09, the Ministry of Public Works and Communications (MPWC) issued a directive to all speedboat owners/operators who provide a passenger service in Guyana’s major rivers that as from April 1, 2009 their boats will have to be equipped with covers for the safety and comfort of passengers. Guideline sketches outlining the boats’ modifications to comply with MPWC directives were handed out to interested parties.
Over the years speedboat construction in Guyana was developed through trial and error. Therefore, the plethora of boats with varying sizes and shapes plying the rivers were not built to any design or specification requirements, but to the whims and fancies of boat builders/owners whose intimate knowledge of buoyancy and aero-dynamic stability as they relate to boat design are non existent. Hence boat owners/operators are in a quandary as to the performance of their boats fitted with covers and travelling at great speeds in high winds and rough waters with wave heights of eight feet or more.
The possibility exists that poorly designed boats with covers travelling at optimum speeds in rough waters and high cross winds with excess payload could easily capsize, thereby putting their passengers in grave danger. The boat owners/operators have scant idea how their boats will perform with the addition of covers, but they have that gut feeling that operating their boats at optimum speed in rough waters and high winds could lead to instability and unsafe conditions for their passengers, since a combination of these factors could cause overturning.
Boat builders/owners/operators need urgent technical assistance from the MPWC in the form of the services of a naval architect to advise them on boat/bateau design with covers for specific payloads, taking into account such parameters as wind speed, wave heights, river currents and boat speed.
It makes no sense for the MPWC to impose modifications which are complex and little understood for speedboat owners/operators to comply with. In their haste to meet the deadline owners/operators could easily end up with poorly constructed covers on their boats, eventually leading to instability and thereby endangering the lives of passengers instead of improving their safety and comfort.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
