Seeking safe skippers

By ROBIN BAILEY

Labour Weekend is traditionally the time when the nation's thoughts turn to things aquatic. This year there's a bonus to the mix - a competition created to help reduce the accident and injury toll on the water.

The New Zealand Herald safe boating competition, which will run each week until November 30, is being supported by the Accident Compensation Corporation as part of the ACC ThinkSafe and BoatSafe initiatives. The aim is to emphasise skipper responsibility in a positive way.

And to give the exercise added impetus when the Louis Vuitton America's Cup challenger series is under way, the promotion has been included as a key initiative of the regional Safe Summer campaign.

Co-ordinated by WaterSafe Auckland, Safe Summer brings together all the agencies involved with safety on, in and under the water.

As with all safety initiatives in the present climate, when Lottery Grants Board funding is drying up, ensuring Safe Summer has sufficient resources has involved a range of partnerships, including Water Safety New Zealand.

The ACC contribution has been backed by input from the Auckland Regional Council, Auckland City Council, alcohol watchdog Alac and the ASB Trust.

The police maritime unit, the ARC marine section and Auckland Volunteer Coastguard will be doing on-the-water positive policing by rewarding safe skippers - including the ones who have lifejackets for everyone aboard - for getting it right.

Among the other basic messages being broadcast through a variety of media are these: always supervise youngsters near water; don't go overboard with the booze; know your limitations; and swim between the flags on patrolled beaches.

The Herald competition, with a $60,000-plus prize package, was launched in August at the Imtec boat show at Princes Wharf and then at the National Boat Show in Hamilton. Those exhibitions gave show patrons a chance to inspect the prize rig and learn about the promotion.

Now comes the exciting bit. Entrants must answer the two questions being published each week, and at the end of the six-week promotion all the completed coupons must be posted to the Herald.

The answers to the questions are in the free booklet Safe Boating, an essential guide which is available at most marine outlets, from the Herald, the Coastguard and all Mad Butcher outlets. The answers are also available online at www.boatsafe.org.nz

In the prize package is a Stabi-Craft 595XR, powered by a Yamaha 115hp four-stroke outboard, and a Mudgway tandem trailer.

The rig has full electronics from ENL and a Hutchwilco safety package. The winner will be the best-equipped and safest boater on the water anywhere in New Zealand.

And if the winner is new to boating, that's no problem because the prize includes Coastguard boating education courses, and fishing instruction from Geoff Thomas to go with a range of Penn reels and a tackle box.

Contest entries must be in by December 6. The winner will be announced in Weekend Marine.

Harbourmaster James McPetrie and police maritime unit commander Senior-Sergeant Martin Paget are enthusiastic supporters of the contest and of Safe Summer.

At a debriefing session with Louis Vuitton race controller Peter Reggio before the start of Round Robin 2, they both commended the spectator fleet for obeying the rules and behaving sensibly.

"We had no real problems," says McPetrie, "and although spectator numbers are nowhere near what they will be later in the series, people were doing everything according to the book.

"In fact, the number of boaters on the water with copies of the ARC-published free America's Cup boaties guide was encouraging. Not only have they picked it up, it seems they have read and understood the messages we are trying to get across."

Paget agrees, saying many of those watching the racing on the water learned a lot during the first New Zealand defence.

It's looking good for another America's Cup summer free of serious incidents.