MERVYN MAGGS
C/O GORDON DRYSDALE
News G20 TASK FORCE AT WORK Wind tax proposal would hit yachts
The wind could be taxed under new proposals being considered by the G20 group of governments. And the tax would also affect leisure sailors, ministers revealed. The move is seen by governments as a way of maintaining tax revenues from power producing wind farms.
“In future, as oil and gas-fired power stations are replaced by sustainable energy, we will need to raise taxes from those companies just as we do now,” explained Lord
Green, of the Department for Trade and Investment. A task force has now been set up to see how wind can be taxed. One of its first jobs according to Lord Green would be to assess how water companies had monetised, and made large profits from, what was once considered a free resource. Ministers admitted that under the draft proposals, anyone using wind power could become subject to taxation under the new laws. Traditional windmills as well as wind
EAST COAST First East Coast Gig built
The first East Coast Rowing Gig built in a century has taken her maiden voyage up the River Colne in Essex, writes James Dodds.
This 24ft (7.3m), cold-moulded gig,with four oars and helmswoman took only a hour to row from her birthplace in Harkers Boatyard in Brightlingsea to the Heritage Centre pontoon in Rowhedge. She has been named Velocity after the large
John Fairfax 1937-2012 John Fairfax, first man to row solo across the Atlantic in 1969 and then the Pacific in 1972, with girlfriend Sylvia Cook, died at home on 8 February. He was raised in Italy and
Argentina and was ejected from the Scouts at the age of nine after settling his first dispute with a pistol. By 13, he had run away to live in the jungle, where he made a living killing big cats and selling their pelts. He once picked a knife fight with a shark, dumping its dead body on the doorstep of a journalist who’d questioned his ability to do so. He made his first million as a gun-smuggler, loved prostitutes and reputedly hated children. He spent his later years as a professional baccarat player in the casinos of his adopted home of Las Vegas. He leaves behind his wife, Tiffany.
Jack Chippendale 1925-2012 The boatbuilder Jack Chippendale died on 24 February. He was a doyen of racing dinghies, and co-founder of the WBTA among his many achievements. Obituary to follow.
18 CLASSIC BOAT APRIL 2012
deep-sea fishing smack that worked from this river at the turn of the century and she’s based on a 19th- century East Coast beach boat design. She was built by Shaun White as part of the apprenticeship programme run by the Pioneer Sailing Trust at Harkers Boatyard. It is hoped that this will be the beginning of the team sport of gig racing on the East Coast. A second boat is already nearly finished.
NMM Royal river exhibition
SCOTLAND
New regatta for McGruers We’ve had Fifes on the Clyde, then Mylnes. The latest Scottish designer regatta is for McGruer yachts, although non- McGruers are also welcome. The entry list so far includes Rowan IV, Elona, Kelana, Cuilaun, Zaleda, Ayrshire Lass and the Gareloch One-Design fleet. The event will be held on Gareloch this 5-6 May. See p50.
The National Maritime Museum will hold a special exhibition to commemorate the Thames’s history of royal pageants of the sort planned for the Queen on 3 June. Four hundred objects, some on loan from the Royal Collection, will be on display from 27 April until 9 September.
“A tax for yachts would
work like road tax”
turbines are cited in the document, as are sailing clubs, organisations and individual yachts. The RYA told CB it had not had time to react to the proposals but a spokesman rubbished the idea as “inappropriate and hard to police. How can they monitor when a boat is sailing? It’s ridiculous,” he said. However, CB has learned that a tax for yachts will work like a road tax, and be based on the boat and her size, rather than a seasonal mile rate.
Classic Boat’s address:
Liscartan House, 127-131 Sloane Street, London SW1X 9AS For phone numbers, please see page 7
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