Local Focus: Speed radar in Tauranga Harbour targeting jetskiers

Harbourmaster takes aim with new radar technology. Made with funding from NZ On Air.

With summer in full swing, the Bay of Plenty's beaches and lakes are busier than ever.

But with safety on the water just as important as ever, the Tauranga harbourmaster is cracking down on speeding jetskiers with a new radar gun and $200 fines.

"I guess jetskis are becoming more popular, they are a lot of fun," deputy harbourmaster Daniel Rapson said.

"They're easy to pick up and get on the water and have a go and people aren't aware of the rules."

The main rule to observe is the 5-knot rule when less than 200m from shore or 50m from other vessels or swimmers.

"200m from shore is 5 knots, so that's slowing down to what we call a fast-walking pace and also 50m from other swimmers or vessels on the water."

Just like the roads, there's one major factor causing concern.

"The big one is unsafe speeds," Rapson said.

"So either close to swimmers and other users in the water, or just close to shore and other vessels."

If you want to hire a jetski and have no experience at all – you can. The rental company will explain the rules as you hop on, but for some it's 'in one ear and out the other'.

"They're so excited they're not really listening and that's the issue that we've got and we're trying to combat that by getting people to listen and think before they jump on. Those jetski hire companies do have processes and they do explain the rules but ultimately, it's up to the user to follow those rules."

One local jetski hire operator agrees that the rules are there to be followed.

"I think it's fair enough," Glen Oldfield from Get Wet Jetski Adventures said.

"Their job is to keep the water safe for everyone to use. It's a busy harbour over the summer period and if a few people ruin it they need to crack down on that."

Oldfield said that while he gets first time riders all the time it isn't like Wild West out on the water.

"It is a busy harbour, especially with the port and boaties at this time of year. I think there's a lot more private skis around, people are able to pick them up with low interest rates now.

"And the difference being, with a boat generally you'll only have the boat owner operate the boat, whereas a jetski seems to be a little bit different where they let anyone ride it."

Private jetski owner Corbin Zillwood believes jetskiers do have a bad reputation "but it's one of those things, just let them have some fun".

Glenn Raymond who uses his jetski for fishing says the harbourmaster should treat everyone fairly.

"He should crack down on every boat user that breaks the rules, not just jetskis. There's good and bad to both sides of the story."

It's an issue that the harbourmaster is already addressing.

"If we see a speeding vessel breaking those 5 knot rules we'll go and talk to them and go through the process," Rapson said. "The problem is there's just so many jetskis and they do go fast and it's easy to go fast."

And if you were lucky enough to have Santa deliver a jetski for Christmas, the harbourmaster has one last message.

"The jetski registrations came in in 2017 in the Bay of Plenty and from our stats we've got around 3000 registered jetskis in the Bay of Plenty. One issue we're finding now is that the people who registered the jetski initially might sell it and the new owner doesn't update the details. So we are pushing for people to update the ownership details."

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