French go cold on Channel swimmers

Neil Tweedie -

Captain Matthew Webb relied on port and meat pies to get him across - a more civilised, and British, form of nourishment than the nutrient gels favoured by today's brand of aquatic masochist.

Either way, swimming the English Channel is no picnic. Breaking waves, fog, jellyfish and the debilitating effects of long-term immersion in cold water make it as much of a trial as ever. And now there is another obstacle: the French.

On the other side of the Channel, or La Manche as they call it, they have developed a rather po-faced attitude to this test of stamina. After banning attempts starting from the French side in 1996, they are threatening to ban the practice entirely.

''This continuous increase of swimming creates a danger which is getting more and more important every year,'' said Jean-Christophe Burvingt, the French coastguard's chief wet blanket. ''I think there will be a collision.''

The English Channel is the world's busiest seaway, witnessing about 500 ship movements a day. A 45,000-tonne container ship travelling at 25 knots requires two or three kilometres to stop. Despite this and other dangers, more and more people insist on following Webb, a merchant seaman, who was the first to swim the Channel in 1875.

Charitable fund-raising is often the spur and there were 260 attempts between June and October.

''We are concerned these crossings are unregulated and growing at an expedient [sic] rate,'' said Chris Newey, the passenger director of the ferry company DFDS, and a supporter of more regulation. ''We do not want to pour cold water on what can be a fund-raising activity. However, our first and foremost priority is the health and safety and welfare of those at sea.''

Nonsense, said Michael Read, the president of the Channel Swimming Association, one of two unofficial bodies that organise crossings. ''Channel swimming has been going for 135 years and I can't believe the French would want to ban it. The CSA keeps numbers under control and annual quotas are agreed with the French coastguard.''

Michael Oram, the secretary of the rival organisation, the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, also dismisses this latest evocation of the health and safety culture.

''Safety is first, second and third with us,'' he said.

Swimmers must be accompanied by pilot boats whose crews use poles with nets on the end to supply them. One touch on a boat's side results in disqualification.

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