Lifejacket trade-in a warning about boating safety

Richard Warrington, of Read Marine Ltd, Dunedin, with some of the old life jackets which have been traded in on new ones. Photo / Stephen Jaquiery

The poor condition of hundreds of life jackets traded in last week in Otago-Southland is a big warning about boating safety.

''It's a wake-up call to actually look at what you've got on board and make sure it will service your needs for safety and staying afloat,'' community ambassador for Coastguard New Zealand and Hutchwilco Sue Tucker said yesterday.

Ms Tucker, of Auckland, was pleased more than 1000 mostly old, outdated life jackets had been handed in in Otago-Southland as part of the Old4New Lifejacket Upgrade.

This was a key part of Coastguard New Zealand's advocacy for safe and enjoyable boating.

''It's actually very positive that people are making the decision to upgrade.''

However, she was concerned that of all the life jackets handed in, including about 230 in Dunedin, 90% were no longer fit for the purpose.

''It was a shock to see so many [outdated] kapok jackets still in circulation.''

Only about 100 of the more than 1000 jackets could be used again and would be donated to strengthen water safety in the Pacific.

Ms Tucker was particularly concerned at least 100 of the jackets handed in were ''actually very dangerous'', would not hold a person upright in water, and would start to sink.

The jackets might offer a short period of initial flotation but then would have to be removed quickly, if the wearer was to survive, she said.

''At the end of the day, they're only fooling themselves,'' she said of jacket owners using badly outdated gear.

Some kapok jackets traded in were up to 70 years old.

Ms Tucker said she would be writing a report on the trade-in programme for Coastguard New Zealand, including on the related safety issues.

These matters would also later be raised with Maritime New Zealand, which had, with the Southern Trust, helped support the Otago-Southland trade-in initiative.

Large numbers of jackets had been traded in throughout Otago: at Balclutha (60), Wanaka (350), Queenstown (80), Clyde (59), Cromwell (121) and Oamaru (64).

More were traded in at Invercargill (90) and Riverton (30).

Coastguard Dunedin president John Campbell was pleased many old life jackets had been traded in, and safer, more comfortable new jackets obtained.

But the large number of life jackets no longer fit for the purpose highlighted the need to avoid complacency about water safety. The outcome showed the need for more to be done to promote water safety awareness.

He would also like to see water safety laws tightened to ensure more people wore life jackets of genuinely life-saving quality.