Two boaties face enforcement action after refusing to move out of Whangārei Harbour’s shipping lane for a tug towing a barge at the weekend.
The tug Capricorn Alpha, towing the barge Cronus, saw two small trailer boats — Nikita and Reign Maker, each about 5m long — illegally anchored in the middle of the harbour’s main navigation channel about 12.45pm on Sunday.
Tug crewman Ian Firth said the Capricorn Alpha announced its movements by radio, notified harbour control and sounded at least two — and possibly three — sequences of five warning blasts, the international signal used when a vessel has concerns about another craft’s intentions.
Despite the warnings, the two boats stayed at anchor.
The Northern Advocate understands the harbourmaster’s offic e has spoken to the boaties and is taking enforcement action.
One of the boaties came forward on Monday and told the harbourmaster’s office he did not hear the warnings. He also said he was too busy fishing to notice the approaching vessel.
Firth said the crew filmed and photographed the incident as evidence for the harbourmaster’s office, adding that such documentation had become increasingly common because of repeated near‑misses in the harbour.
He said the behaviour was usually driven by “ignorance or arrogance”.
Deputy harbourmaster Peter Thomas said the situation was dangerous and avoidable.
He did not accept excuses that people didn’t know the rules, couldn’t see the oncoming large vessels, or didn’t hear warning toots.
“These people are only in little boats. You get walloped by a barge that weighs about 1000 tonnes and is steel and travelling along — it can’t stop.”
Footage from commercial crews is key to identifying the errant boat operators — a process Thomas said was often difficult because recreational boats were not required to be registered.
He said the harbourmaster’s office increasingly relied on social media to seek the public’s help, as it had done in this case.
A man on the water that day said on social media he had yelled warnings to the boaties, but they did not appear to respond. Others said the tug’s horn could be heard as far as Smugglers Bay.
Firth said once a tug and barge were committed to the navigation channel, there were limited options to avoid small craft.
Large commercial vessels were constrained by depth and manoeuvrability and could not simply leave the channel without risking grounding or environmental damage.
He said the consequences of a collision would be catastrophic not only for those aboard small boats but also for commercial operators, who carried significant legal and licensing responsibilities and did not want to be involved in serious incidents.
Firth said recreational boaties might mistakenly believe they were safely out of harm’s way, but the situation could look very different from the wheelhouse of a commercial vessel.
In this case, he said, the barge being towed would naturally swing wide during a turn, further reducing clearance.
Firth wanted New Zealand to introduce mandatory licensing for boat operators, as exists in Australia.
“A lot of people in the commercial industry would now advocate for licensing for private people on boats because with that licensing would come education,” he said.
While he acknowledged such a move would likely attract backlash, Firth said repeated incidents like Sunday’s only strengthened the case.
A licensing system would provide clearer accountability and a practical way to penalise offending or non‑compliant boaties, he said.
Under Northland’s navigation safety bylaws, vessels must not anchor, stop or fish in any part of a navigation channel marked by buoys and beacons, and must keep well clear of large commercial ships.
Publicity this year in which Jim Lyle voiced similar concerns about the channel hazard, prompted a Whangārei man, Christian Olsen, to contact the Northern Advocate about his personal experience decades ago.
Olsen, then 13, and his grandmother, Elsie Grant, who was in her 60s, were in a small boat in the harbour when it was struck by a freighter.
They survived only by clinging to a dinghy oar and floorboards from the wrecked vessel until rescuers arrived 90 minutes later, they told the media at the time.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has 20 years’ experience in journalism, most of which she spent court reporting in Gisborne and on the East Coast.