Section 1.4 references the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 but this applies to work place practice
Irrespective of what is good practice and wise etc the code appears to apply to all model engineering societies and clubs etc but what about Joe public.
If Joe public is sailing a steam powered vessel on a public lake then none of these rules would appear to apply legally as he is not a member of a club/engineering society etc. and he is not at work.
So Joe public can do what he wants? Is this a correct interpretation?
Just trying to flush this all out.
Cheers
Geoff
Hi Geoff,
In a nutshell... NO... Joe public cannot do just what he likes.
The Health and Safety at work act extends well beyond factories and offices etc.
A public park or privately owned lake complex is also a workplace for some people... Park-keepers, Groundsmen, lake banks and bridge workers etc... so HSE applies.
Most public lakes and parks are owned and maintained by Local Councils and they apply local bye-law rules... privately owned lakes are subject to the owners rules of use.
For people using any lake facilities for the purpose of sailing model boats the owner/council generally require the user to have adequate third party insurance to protect the owner/council from litigation in the event of an accident.
Where model steam is concerned such insurance will require the production of a valid boiler test certificate before cover will be given... this means passing a boiler pressure and steam test.
The code presented, whilst not the Law of the Land (per se), is a hard fought for and agreed subset of the PSSR regulations, which are LAW, specifically obtained for model steam boilers.
Before this code became agreed, we had to pass the PSSR regulations tests and they are much more complex, and very much more expensive.
It is actually and offence (in the UK) to operate a model boiler in a 'Public place' without a valid pressure and steam test certificate and valid adequate public third party liability insurance.
(Note, this does not include the likes of 'MAMOD' type items, since these are classified as steam toys and are covered by separate legislation... however, some local council bye-laws even prohibit these).
To protect what little we have left of the freedom to persue this hobby, it makes sense to follow the guidelines and procedures stated in the code... or we could end up loosing the facilities forever.
Even if not a club member it is still reasonable easy to approach a club in order to get a boiler test certificate, albeit this may involve a small fee... as a member of the club the testing is usually free and, in addition, you may benefit from being covered by the clubs insurance.
Once you have obtained the valid test certificate you can approach most reputable insurance companies for third party model cover... it is not that expensive.
On the other hand... Litigation following even a minor accident involving a member of the public can get very expensive without valid boiler test certificates and/or insurance.
I hope this clarifies things a bit.
Best regards.
AlexC.