After Tt Practices Fiasco

[Rhumsaa]

I've tried writing this a few times... trying to put across a well thought out structured post like so many good topic starters do round here but I'm failing so.... stuff it

 

I was sat up at the Black Hut as per usual tonight marshalling - the convoy of marshals at 5.30 actually worked well to my amazement - and as the last TM went past at 9.10 we packed away our gear and readied ourselves for home, cold and a bit wet from a shower but otherwise in fine spirits, hopeful for the fortnight ahead and hoping the couple of accidents we'd heard about were ok.

 

The DoT wagons drive by... the DoT jeep thing comes past and puts up some signs.... another wagon full of cones drives by.... come 10.10 we're still sat waiting.... we're freezing cold and no one knows what is going on, no information as to an eta is passed on and we have no idea what time we can escape.

 

At around 10.25 the roads open car finally passes us and I get to drive down to Ramsey via Sulby in search of a hot drink. It's on this drive i see the fucking monstrosity that is the Bungalow cone system - from the Verandah they start barely a couple of paces between them and by the junction they are so thick you can barely see the vehicles emerging from the right hand exit. What was wrong with the cones they had out last year? I don't see the point of so many cones and if it's going to take them an hour to set it all up after every practice I can't see many marshal's wanting to go through that shambles again. It's a lot to ask people to sit on the mountain from 5/6 pm each night straight from work til gone 10pm - most people wouldn't be getting home til half 10 nearly 11pm which just leaves enough time to get a hot drink then bed ready for the next go... shambles

[Mr. Pedantic]

I know I moaned before about all the TT threads but in this case, I think it's more than justified.

 

No marshals = no TT.

 

Surely, the main priority after the bikes have cleared the circuit is to get the (unpaid) volunteers off the course and home.

 

C'mon someone, read this and take note.

[Gladys]

Agree Mr P. The volunteer marshalls should be highly valued by the race organisers and IOM Government, and treated almost as VIPs. After ensuring the safety of the race competitors, the next priority should be the marshalls. Are they not given radios or mobiles to keep in touch with a central station?

 

Edtied to add: Thank you for your efforts Rhumsaa, I hope you are thanked from the appropriate quarters.

[Rhumsaa]

Each point has a radio linked to the Control tower with the marshal base there however they aren't linked to the DoT or the Police but the radio was pretty silent anyway other than a constant reminder to not go on the road until the Roads Open car passes

 

I can understand one point of logic that is if spectators see marshal's leaving they would want to go too but in all honesty I fail to see the problem with getting people off the mountain first then having the DoT cone the place up and take as long as they want rather than having everyone wait up there for over an hour

[grant]

Rhumsaa, I'd feel pretty racked off as well. Are you saying that none of the roads were re-opened until 10.25, or it was just the one way section?

[Rhumsaa]

just the mountain 1 way section - everyone else got to go home!

[grant]

Looks like you've drawn the short straw, lets hope there isn't a shortage of marshalls towards the end of 2 weeks. It really is no way at all, to treat a group of volunteers. I'd be making some phone calls in the morning.

[Rhumsaa]

There's a meeting about it all tomorrow apparently

 

I've calmed down a lot as at the time I was ready to storm down the grandstand and do some kind of grand throwing my warrant card in their faces Hollywood cop movie stylee which would have accomplished nothing but filled me with righteous fury etc

 

We all had a good chat about it up there (we had plenty of time after all) and all agreed that something had to be done or at least some common sense be applied. The mountain is a hardship of a place to find marshal's at the best of times and things like this do not help

[WilDDog]

I wouldn't be very happy with all that waiting either dude I hope you all get it sorted.

[andrew]

I left Race Control at 23:30 last night - probably one of the last people to leave the Grandstand. Some of my Colleagues had been there since 09:00 that morning........

 

There have been so many different ideas put forward about this. The problem is that if all the Marshals were allowed to leave the mountain, then who is going to make sure the spectators don't leave, or if they are allowed to leave as well, who is going to make sure they go the right way (following the one way system), as if there are no signs out saying it is one way and someone goes the wrong way and causes an accident, who's fault is that........ If the DOT just put some signs up saying it is one way and then allowed people to leave, where is the cut of for then putting the cones out? The DOT can't/won't put the cones out whilst traffic could be moving on the roads.

 

We spoke to several of the Chief Sector Marshals last night and a meeting was taking place at 08:00 this morning between the TTMA, Police, DOT, and the Clerk of the Course about how things can be speeded up. This was the first "proper" go the DOT had at putting everything out (the practice run to put things out that morning took about 5 hours!). I expect a lot of lessons have been learnt about where time can be gained to hopefully get you all off the mountain quicker in future.

 

I will mention to the Clerk of the Course about keeping the Marshals informed as to what is happening. Unfortunatly it is the DOT who have to do the work and whilst we are in radio contact with them, there is not a lot we can do to make them quicker. If we keep pestering them for updates it's just going to delay things further. We did join DTLSECTOR9, 10 and 11 together last year, but it just caused more problems than it solved. I will see if more broadcasts can be done to keep you informed. If you need to speak to Control, remember we are still at the end of DTLCONTROL3.

 

We are making people aware that (as someone said above), no Marshals = No TT and we are trying our best to come up with a better solution. The bottom line is that until the cones and signs are out, no-one can move.........

 

We are all Volunteers and understand how you must be feeling up there - some of the comments we heard on the radios were great! Please bear with us hopefully we can try and speed things up a bit over the next few sessions.

 

Hope this helps explain it a bit better.

 

Thanks.

 

Andrew.

[lurk]

There's a meeting about it all tomorrow apparently

 

I've calmed down a lot as at the time I was ready to storm down the grandstand and do some kind of grand throwing my warrant card in their faces Hollywood cop movie stylee which would have accomplished nothing but filled me with righteous fury etc

 

We all had a good chat about it up there (we had plenty of time after all) and all agreed that something had to be done or at least some common sense be applied. The mountain is a hardship of a place to find marshal's at the best of times and things like this do not help

 

if you had gone down the grandstand you would have come across a lot of highly paid civil servants swaggering about from the leisure department and such. Although they were probably having a night out by the time you would of got down to tell them.

 

The marshals really are the unsung heros of these races. Unpaid too of course.

 

The TT is now about making money. We love money, we love money. I suppose they will say that is the real world we are in. The real world we are in is that there are fat cats and greed at the top and somewhere else is people getting shafted. That is how the isle of man works in my view.

 

I wish some of the TT fat cats think about the marshals especially the mountain sectors the next time they are eating 'prawn sandwiches'.

 

but meatime rhumsaa, fwiw I say "respect" to you and your fellows up there.

[WTF]

it would make sense to me for the cones to be left in an orderly stacked pile near to their respective locations,not in a possition that a fallen rider could hit, and the numerous marshals up there replace them swiftly and as necessary for a small payment. the DOT having to chug up there with trucks doing 30 mph if your lucky and getting paid overtime for it would seem a job for the boys.

[WilDDog]

A marshal wrote in this thread on iomtt.com

that all the cones were placed in 20 minutes so this was all done by 9.30. So if that's true I wonder what the holdup was.

[Stavros]

I don't see why they can't give the spectators and marshals a police escort off the mountain before the DOT start laying the cones. A police car or bike in front, and another behind. Let everyone know that they have to leave the course immediately as soon as the escort comes through. DOT can follow up with the cones.

 

Just my simple opinion but I guess there may be more reasons than I'm aware of that make it unplausible.

 

Stav.

[Rhumsaa]

Wilddog - The guy must have been talking about the Hairpin cones rather than Bunglaow or Creg Ny Baa

 

WTF - Or even do what they did last year for the races which was have a DoT guy sat up on the mountain at the point it was needed

 

Andrew - Thanks for your response, I am much calmer now and I am glad I have had a few hours to give a decent reply to you as you seem a nice honest bloke doing his best the same as the vast majority of people involved. The sad truth is your words are too little too late for a lot of marshals and whilst I see the points you're making I fear they simply don't wash. Not from a race control perspective but from the DoT organisation. Clearly there are better solutions than the one we experienced last night and from my own personal feelings it seems like more political wranglings between the Police and DoT who simply can't be arsed with the TT and will go out of their way to be awkward and force others to take responsibility. Afew ideas I can think of straight off my head are WTF's suggestion already mentioned above or a rolling roads open (why do we need the car to hurtle past at 200mph) or a police car go up and clear the mountain before the DoT go up, they have the ability to keep the road shut at the hairpin anyway and for the evening practices especially it should be simple enough to go through each point collecting a convoy of marshals - hell even just letting us follow the DoT to the bunglaow to get out early would be beneficial rather than waiting til everything is clear.

 

I suspect the main reason why none of the above will happen is because the Police and DoT do not want to know.

 

I've come to a decision I will not be marshalling on Monday night, I will be seeing what happens and considering the rest of the fortnight.