EastCoastSail forum posts in last 60 days

Pretty foreseeable.

ACTAndy,

Judging by your description I'm in the same situation as you. ACT based, boat on a mooring in Batemans Bay. 10m, $60K value at $1500 p/a with Club Marine. Nil claims. Did need an out of water shipwright survey at the start. That cost about $900 in the boat yard.

Thanks for all your responses . That what I was starting to feel after getting Marina berth prices for 2027. I was surprised they are 2/3 the price of my local SNSW coast marina.

Greater investment in more public housing would be a good start.

woko said..
A very good point, though extremely expensive and highly unlikely. A requirement to boat ownership like having a license would be a deterrent to some, would also ensure boat operators knew the basic rules like what side to pass on, who has right of way etc. how can that be a bad thing ?

But don’t we have that now and it’s not a bad thing. We have license requirements in each state and the vast majority of people do the right thing.


I perceive there are increasing costs and regulations to being a good citizen sailor. In NSW in many areas you can’t change boats on moorings or obtain a new mooring, most yards will not allow owner maintenance, increasing costs with anti fouling, an ageing fleet that in parts is uninsurable and full marinas as in some places there is no other choice to store your boat.

So we are coming towards a tipping point when part of society can’t afford to sail/be on the water meeting all the rules and regulations so doesn’t get licenced and lives on the water trying to evade authorities. In my region mooring minders are being given away for free (as the owners want to avoid disposal costs) and some of them make a reasonable housing choice if you are broke. Maritime has a busy job chasing down this mob around here.

We have enough regulations in place, just enforce current regulations.

lydia said..
So with Ballina, lets look past the media spin by MRNSW and the local authorities.
Let’s look at the legal framework and the primary safety obligation. (Rescue craft are not exempt)
So for the master, look at the first limb:
Non self righting boat that can’t recover from knockdown
Low AVS of vessel (RIBS have a long righting arm to about 40 degrees that then diminishes very quickly by 60 degrees)
Low down flooding angle (only about 40 degrees)
Opening side windows not designed to survive knockdown
Then second limb:
Elderly crew
Voyage in the dark on a coastal bar where wave buoy down coast is recording over 5m wave height.
But the master proceeds.
The best evidence suggests that the rescue vessel got caught side on, lost windows and down flooded then capsized.
So all predictable given the design and construction of the vessel.

Flame away!

Hits the mark.


The NSCV compliant rescue boat was not suitable for the task at hand.

Compare a typical RNLI lifeboat to the VMR boat.

I am not in favour of extra compliance or rules and regulations for recreational boating. . I have come professionally from that environment , managed ships in class, been the chief engineer maintaining a LLoyds Register Passenger Safety Certification. I greatly enjoyed the methodology of the surveyors, Everything was defective unless we operated it in front of the surveyors, in every mode, in every configuration including degraded states. It stops all bull****.

But that certification took the ship out its program for two weeks a year and was a significant cost. There was the occasional pickup and that was of benefit. But a large percentage of the defects had negligible difference to safety but came at great expense to rectify.


I raced competitively for over a decade but left Australian Sailing due to the rising costs of compliance with greater regulation. My crew and I decided it wasn’t worth it and now we cruise.

The majority of the deaths in this incident came from a regulated environment (VMR).

I think the coroner may find the rescue boat not up the the required standard ( ie needs a higher standard than NSCV).

Likely no amount of additional regulation would have stopped the death of the sailor living on the fringe of society..