THOUSANDS of Scarborough residents and holidaymakers have backed a pleasure boat owner’s battle against Euro red tape.

The MV Coronia, which helped with the Dunkirk evacuation during the Second World War, has been stopped from sailing to Whitby because the journey lies outside a 15 nautical mile limit placed on it by a new European licence.

The European Class C Licence – a legal requirement for passenger vessels – limits the vessel to round trips of 30 nautical miles, all within three miles offshore.

Under the old licence the vessel was still restricted to a 30 nautical mile round trip but officers from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency were allowed to add the extra distance at their discretion.

Tom Machin, the boat’s owner – who has set a target of 10,000 signatures – has collected more than 6,000 names in just over a week.

He said: “We have the main petition in the booking office and people are coming in to sign it. There are a lot of signatures, everybody is coming down here – it’s unbelievable.”

Mr Machin added that people were even taking sheets away with them to drum up extra support.

He said: “We are waiting to hear from Edward McMillan-Scott, the Yorkshire MEP, to come back to us. He has written to Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly.

“Everybody is up in arms about it, they can’t believe what’s happened, I am just hoping that someone is going to see sense. You can do a 30-mile round trip but you can’t do a 17-mile single trip.”

Customers of the Quality Inn cafe, in Aberdeen Walk, are typical of those signing the petition. Manager Michael David Angus said: “I think it’s disgusting. It’s been going for years.”

An estimated 95,000 passengers have travelled between Scarborough and Whitby since Coronia came to the resort in 1992.

The Coronia was built in Great Yarmouth in 1935 and for her first five years she carried holidaymakers along the North Sea coast of Norfolk.

During the Second World War it was seconded to carry supplies and ammunition to destroyers and had a gun turret fitted on the foredeck. On May 29 1940, it rescued a reported 900 troops as part of the Dunkirk evacuation.

From The Scarborough Evening News on Monday, August 13, 2007.