The free seminar will give boaties tips on crossing the Whanganui River bar and the Pātea bar. Photo / NZME
The free seminar will give boaties tips on crossing the Whanganui River bar and the Pātea bar. Photo / NZME
The New Zealand Coastguard Tautiaki Moana is making a pitstop in Whanganui with its Bar Awareness Roadshow.
Coastguard, in collaboration with the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council, is visiting 30 boating communities across New Zealand ahead of the summer season.
The Whanganui seminar on Thursday, November 20, from 7-9pm atthe Wanganui-Manawatu Sea Fishing Club, will provide advice on crossing the Whanganui and Pātea bars.
The free sessions aim to increase public knowledge on how to safely navigate bar crossings and lower preventable drowning fatalities.
“Crossing a bar is the most dangerous thing you’ll do on your recreational boat,” Coastguard Tautiaki Moana bar project lead Simon Marshall said.
Marshall is a volunteer skipper at Coastguard Titirangi and Coastguard Auckland.
Bars are formed by sediment settling around rivermouths or other waterways as they meet the ocean. These shallower bars, along with competing currents and tides, create turbulent water with unstable waves, Marshall said.
Bars shift regularly, adding to their unpredictability.
On February 7 this year, the Coastguard’s National Operations Centre logged a record 753 bar crossings on a single day – highlighting how often people brave these crossings.
“Every year we deal with fatalities,” Marshall said.
In 2024, 18 people died as a result of incidents involving powered craft, with many of the deaths occurring in tidal waters or during bar crossings. Five of the deaths occurred from capsizes on bars, and more than half of the incidents happened close to shore.
Power-craft-related deaths rose to 25% of total preventable drownings that occurred in New Zealand in 2024.
Two people died during a bar crossing incident at Pātea earlier this year.
“If we can share what we’ve learned, it might save a life or two,” Marshall said.
Coastguard is visiting boating communities around the country to increase knowledge on bar safety with free educational seminars.
He leads a portion of the courses, along with the regional Coastguard units at each location, who provide knowledge of the specific bars and waterways in those areas.
Attendees will learn how to read and assess conditions; improve their boat handling skills; log bar crossing reports with the Coastguard what to do in an emergency; and other critical safety practices, including monitoring weather conditions and always having safety gear onboard.
“A lot of the days where we see an accident happen is a day people shouldn’t have been out,” Marshall said.
For those unable to attend the in-person education seminar, there will be an online course, with more information available on the Coastguard website coastguard.nz.
