Yachting: Water-police to keep order among crowds

By Suzanne McFadden

One hundred and eighty two of the boys - and girls - in blue are getting ready to pound a new beat on Auckland's waters for the next eight months.

By early next week, 11 zappy new police boats will be ready to hit the Hauraki Gulf to patrol the waves and the docks for the America's Cup.

The water-police team have already set up base in the old West End Rowing Club building at Westhaven.

The police will watch over boaties on the water, making sure they are both safe and acting within the law, and revellers on the waterfront.

Sergeant Martin Paget, launchmaster for the special unit, hazards a guess at how huge the crowds will be.

In the last round-the-world race sendoff, there was a conservative fleet of 1500 boats on the water, but that was twice as many as the peak number of spectator craft at America's Cup regattas in both Fremantle and San Diego.

"The last time there was a census on boatowners in Auckland was 1976 - and there were 61,000," Paget said. "We think it is more like 100,000 now.

"If 10 per cent of those went out on one day, that's a huge number of boats to patrol. We think 3500 is more realistic."

With those numbers in mind, the police have had 11 rigid inflatable boats built for their special fleet, and taken 182 staff on board the team.

All are from Auckland and are being trained to work on the water: "If we have a major disaster out there, we need to be able to grab all staff and go out."

Each boat will have four police on board, two to drive, and two to go on other people's boats, be it for rescues or arrests.

Every cup syndicate will have an officer assigned to them. The team will help out with Apec in the lead-up to the cup.

New Zealand law does not stop at the high-tide mark. The only laws that do not apply at sea are the road laws, so there will be no drink-driving tests for boaties on the water.

"But if a driver does anything that causes unnecessary risk to anyone else - driving too fast or too close - they have committed an offence," Paget said.

"The maximum penalty is $10,000 or 12 month's imprisonment."

And the roads outside marinas will be targeted with compulsory breath testing.