Safety measures expensive and ineffective, boaties say

Boaties are criticising proposals to set up $2 million-a-year safety measures in the Marlborough Sounds, saying the plans will do nothing to prevent accidents.

The Interislander, which says it could be charged $600,000 more a year on top of $4 million it pays annually to Port Marlborough, says the bylaw is "a poorly disguised revenue-gathering exercise" with no clear link to safety. It will challenge it in the High Court.

Many operators will be forced to pass costs on to passengers and customers, and some tourism operators have said they will go out of business.

Marlborough District Council has drafted a bylaw that would force all commercial operators to install navigation transponders at a cost of about $3000 and then slap them with a levy to fund the monitoring of the transponders and other safety measures. It plans to collect $1.77m a year to fund the new safety measures.

Marlborough harbourmaster Alex van Wijngaarden told a tribunal hearing this week the tracking systems would allow his office to contact ships on potential collision courses.

Submissions from ferry operators, fishermen, water taxis, charter boats and marine farms repeatedly told the tribunal the safety measures would not work and questioned the transparency of the process and what the money would be used for.

But many submitters noted that with only commercial boats required to fit the tracking system, the bylaw would not prevent accidents involving recreational boats. Opponents say none of the recent high-profile crashes would have been prevented under the proposals.

Interislander master Captain William Wood told the tribunal he was concerned about small boats and the risk they put themselves and their passengers in. He questioned why people were required to have a licence to drive cars and own dogs, but not to skipper a recreational boat.

Both Strait Shipping and Interislander have had transponders in their ships since 1995 and the ferries say their safety measures are excellent.

The contentious bylaw stems from a 2005 report by consultants Marico Marine, which said that with about 200 incidents and near misses in the Sounds every year, "standing still is not an option".

There are between 8000 and 9000 shipping movements in the Sounds each year.

But Shipping Federation executive director Sam Buckle said the bylaw was built on a risk assessment that was four years old and outdated.

Marico had carried out a review of the 2005 report last year and found there were no significant risks.

"They have a report that says all of the risks are managed. So how do they justify proposing to introduce $2m in compulsory levies? I'm staggered by that." The updated report had not been made publicly available and the process had lacked transparency, he said.

Committee chairman John Marshall QC said the committee reserved its decision and would report to Marlborough District Council.

Collision Course

May 2005 – Picton man Norman McFarlane, 66, died after steering his 10-metre launch Timeless across the bow of Bluebridge's Cook Strait ferry Santa Regina. Timeless was a recreational boat so would not have had to install a transponder under the new bylaw. June 2008 – New Zealand King Salmon workers Anton Perano and Troy Climo, both 38, were killed when their six-metre runabout Shikari crashed into a 91-tonne former naval patrol boat moored in Waikawa Bay, near Picton. Several other passengers were badly injured. Although Shikari was a commercial boat so would have to have had a transponder under the new rules, a moored boat would not have its transponder activated. An investigation found Mr Perano was distracted by his cellphone. April 2009 – Five people were treated at hospital after trimaran Jewd, coming around a peninsula, collided with launch Krystana coming out of Waikawa Bay. The six people on the trimaran had to be plucked from the water after the boat was demolished. The accident involved recreational boats which would not have had to install a transponder under the new bylaw.

- with Marlborough Express

- © Fairfax NZ News