PEERS PAN IDIOT SKIER

THE Guernsey Skiers' Association has distanced itself from the jet skier who jeopardised safety at the powerboat weekend.

The dark jet ski had shot across the path of the leader in race one of the Condor Ferries Liberation Grand Prix on Saturday, forcing Bat out of Hell to throttle back to avoid a collision.

'We are a newly established club and we already get a lot of negative comments from the public, so the last thing we want is bad press like this,' said GSA vice-president Andy Ewin.

'We have no idea who the individual involved was. If we did know who it was, we would make sure they knew it was not on.'

After the race, driver Cliff Smith labelled the jet skier an idiot who would have jeopardised future racing in Guernsey had they been hit.

But Robert Dodsworth, of the Guernsey Powerboating Association safety team, saw the incident and does not believe the jet skier meant any trouble.

'I firmly believe the person did not know the race was going on. I don't think they were taking the mickey, because as soon as they realised what was going on, they took precautions to make sure nothing else serious happened.

'If he had stopped after looking round and seeing them coming, it could have been a different story. They did the right thing and got out of the way.

'He or she didn't come back to try and cause any more problems.'

For future powerboat events in Guernsey, the GSA and the GPA safety team will look into the use of water-based marshals.

'If we are to have events like this going on in Guernsey, our association would like some of our people out there on jet skis to marshal,' said Mr Ewin.

'That way we can ensure the same doesn't happen again with any other jet skier. From associations we have spoken to in the UK, this seems to be commonplace and works well.'

Mr Dodsworth agreed: 'It seems likely the races will go ahead again next year and we would welcome the help of their newly formed organisation for the event.'

Harbour master Peter Gill said unless someone could identify the jet skier, there was nothing else that could be done.

'They can get up to speeds of 90km/h, so it's very hard to track them. They don't have an on-board radio so it's not really that easy to communicate.'