Thanks for raising this Tom, and for being part of Windsurfing NSW's advocacy.

The link to the specific section of the survey (took me under 5 mins to complete) is here:
www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/marine-safety-regulation/survey_tools/safer-port-operations

I listened to the Transport for NSW zoom presentation yesterday. Everything is being driven by the past number of maritime fatalities & serious injuries in NSW (17 & 52 respectively in FY21). If you go to lgnsw.org.au/Public/Public/News/News21/09/0914-Maritime-Safety-Plan.aspx and download the 2026 Draft Maritime Safety Plan you can see their priorities to achieve zero deaths & injuries. Notwithstanding there's no mention of sailboards in the document or in the fatalities or serious injuries statistics (as compared to PWC operators, paddlers and tinny skippers), Maritime believe that sailboards are a danger (to themselves) in all shipping lanes and should be banned, notwithstanding a child in an optimist dinghy is allowed to sail in that area. I think there is a chance to review Schedule 5 in Sydney harbour as large ship traffic has dropped considerably since the law was introduced. Over the next week there is the grand total of 28 ships (mostly cruise ships arriving early & departing late) expected to berth or depart Sydney Port. Increased access for sailboards in North Harbour & Rose Bay would not increase safety risks materially but would enhance our utility.

Hi All,
I am a wingfoil sailor and I have completed the survey, here are my comments regarding the proposed changes to the Yarra Bay/La Perouse and surrounding waters.
"I am concerned for the control of waters within Yarra Bay including Phillip Bay and the waters around La Perouse. While the shipping lane at the entry to Botany Bay passes to the south of these areas, the exclusion zone extends well into the general Yarra Bay waters. This area is used extensively by recreational boaters and for recreational watersports such as sailing, windsurfing, kiting and wingfoil activities. I have been sailing in this area for many years and can comfortably say that the interference recreational boating and watersports in general with shipping in the main Botany Bay channel is minimal. The ship movements are not continuous and there are many hours of the day when commercial activities do not interfere with the enjoyment of the waters around the Yarra Bay/La Perouse areas. In many cases the tugs come out and wait for a ship to enter, these tugs have been seen to wait at the entrance to Yarra Bay at the edge of the shipping channel. Is there any method for these tug vessels to sound a warning to all members of the recreational boating/watersport public to clear the area as commercial vessels are approaching?
This would allow time for the recreational watersport enthusiasts to clear the area so as not interfere with commercial operations. Once the vessels have departed from the Yarra Bay open waters area, the exclusions zone of the channel and surrounds could be lifted to allow the enjoyment of the water to continue.
I strongly disagree with a continuous restriction of the waters in and around the Yarra/ La Perouse area."

These comments are my own and I do not claim to represent anyone but myself.

Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention "REGAL 1", to keep the waters open to all watersport enthusiasts.

All the best,
Gary

"Shipping channels are used by merchant vessels to enter and depart ports. The chance of one of these large ships interacting with small vessels in a shipping channel is high. A total of 4,903 commercial vessels visited NSW's six working ports in 2020-21. As shipping channels are highly trafficked by large merchant vessels, it is essential that the MSR supports the safety of shipping channels for all waterway users. This is particularly relevant for kitesurfing, sailboarding and paddlecraft due to the reduced capacity of these vessels to quickly move out of shipping channels."

So the average is 2.2 ships per port per day. Obviously specific ports will have more.

Still, I think it is unreasonable to ban any sporting activity for 2 boats a day.

I think the timing of arrival & departure is important & a blanket ban on sailboards is a blunt tool that they'll never relinquish. I only sail in the afternoon and never between the hours of 7.30pm and 11am. They could have as many large vessel movements (9?) as they want in the dark and dawn.

laff77 said..
Hi All, I had a conversation with the Port Jackson and Port Botany Harbour Master earlier today to enquire about the safety risks of windsurfers in the shipping chanel in Port Botany. He advised that they have recorded several near misses (I don't know over what period of time). He also told me they have photos of a windsurfer or kitesurfer coming precariously close to a container vessel. I tried to reason with him that majority of windsurfers do the right and he acknowledged that, but said it only takes a couple of people. I also asked if they could consider only enforcing these regulations when there was a vessel movement, but he said this was unlikely.

Just to also provide you with some facts and figures..... Port Botany handled 135 ships in November, that equates to 270 movements (in and out). Averaged out over 30 days, that equates to around 9 vessels movements per day in Port Botany. Hope that helps, I will keep engaging with the Harbour Master to see if that helps in anyway.

"several near misses" - I guess that means there have been no ACTUAL incidents?

...I wonder what constitutes a near miss?

Hi Committee, The NSW Government is using the silly season to seek feedback on proposed "improvements" to the Marine Safety Regulation 2016 that will see even further restrictions to the already draconian measures in Sydney Harbour, extending windsurfing bans to Botany Bay and other working ports in NSW. www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/marine-safety-regulationhttps://www.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/80463/widgets/384110/documents/243208

This is the paragraph we are particularly concerned about:
"5.2.2 Safety in shipping channels Shipping channels are used by merchant vessels to enter and depart ports. The chance of one of these large ships interacting with small vessels in a shipping channel is high. A total of 4,903 commercial vessels visited NSW's six working ports in 2020-2021. As shipping channels are highly trafficked by large merchant vessels, it is essential that the MSR supports the safety of shipping channels for all waterway users. This is particularly relevant for kitesurfing, sailboarding and paddlecraft due to the reduced capacity of these vessels to quickly move out of shipping channels. Proposal: Amend Schedule 5, waters in which kitesurfing and sailboarding is prohibited, to be extended to the shipping channels in Port Botany, Newcastle and Port Kembla. This is aimed at removing the potential safety hazard associated with a large merchant vessel colliding with a kitesurfer or sailboarder and also avoiding the need for a merchant vessel being forced to take emergency evasive action to avoid such a collision.

Question 13 Do you support the prohibition of kitesurfing and sailboarding in all shipping channels?"
Tom, Richie and I have drafted a submission, attached, and wonder if you have any other points to add before we send it in. We will then mail the submission to all our members, asking them to fill in the survey on the site to register their opposition to Q13.
Thanks, Lissa McMillan President WNSW

Submission to NSW Government regarding Review of marine Safety Regulation 2016

Windsurfing NSW represents sailboarders in this state, and encourages participation and competition within the sport. We represent a range of windsurfing classes, from the Olympic IQ Foil class to wave sailing and the traditional windsurfer. Currently windsurfers are not allowed on significant areas of the Port of Sydney Harbour as a result of the Marine Safety General Regulation 2016 - Schedule 5. Far from seeking to increase these prohibited areas, Windsurfing NSW believes the Regulation needs to be amended so sailboards may use Sydney Harbour, and other waterways, in the way that any other sailor may. Point 5.2.2 of the Marine Safety Regulation 2016 Discussion Paper (nsw.gov.au) states that "A total of 4,903 commercial vessels visited NSW's six working ports in 2020-21." The Port Authority of NSW notes in its port summary 1,200 vessels transited in Port Jackson, 1,600 in Port Botany and 800 in Port Kembla. This averages out at 6.4, 8.8 and 4.4 movements per day (see Sydney Harbour | Port Authority New South Wales (portauthoritynsw.com.au). These are very small numbers and would not appear difficult for any waterways user to avoid. If shipping movement rates grew at a forecast GDP rate of 3% per annum for 10 years, the numbers remain very small. The complete restriction of the activities of windsurfing participants for shipping activities that don't take very long is completely disproportionate
There are already rules designed to keep smaller craft away from commercial vessels.
The Transport for NSW Boating Handbook states: "You must not cross: a channel if you're going to get in the way of a large vessel in front of a large vessel, unless well clear too close behind a large vessel."
Government has an important role to educate people and enforce the current rules, which are more than adequate, rather than adopting a nanny-state overreaction, banning a swathe of individuals from their right to safely use the waterways. Preventing a particular type of vessel from crossing a shipping channel 24/7 is an extreme way to provide clear passage for up to 5 vessels a day, and is the embodiment of the sledgehammer to crack a nut approach.
As noted above schedule 5 bans sailboards from many parts of Port Jackson. North harbour (the area north of a line from Grotto Point to North Head) has zero commercial movements per day other than the F1 ferry route and Manly fast ferry which operate every 20 minutes during peak hours and less on Saturdays and Sundays. North harbour and much of Port Jackson are large expanses of water with lots of room to manoeuvre. Schedule 5 as it pertains to sailboards should be deleted.
Restricting areas of sailboarding activity is entirely counter to the stated Government aim of encouraging people to get active and improve their health by participating in physical activity.
A recent development that must be considered in this review is the selection of the IQ Foil as the next Olympic sailboard Class. These craft must race in Olympic selection events, some of which are held in Sydney Harbour, run by Sail Sydney. Apart from events, Australia's future representatives are training and racing in the harbour and are currently prevented from crossing the shipping channel during safety-controlled events, although a child or a first-time sailor in any other vessel is permitted to cross. Sailboards and the sailors involved are much better prepared now than 30 years ago when the laws were first promulgated. Sailboarding has matured as a sailing discipline and is no longer the dangerous novelty these laws were designed to protect against.
In a growing number of Australian Sailing-affiliated clubs, sailboards are just another class racing with the dinghy fleets. They follow the same racing rules, risk management procedures, and safety briefings as the club members who happen to be sailing dinghies rather than sailboards. It seems discriminatory to exclude an entire sailing class from accessing areas of the Harbour which are freely available to all other sailing craft.
If a sailboard's closest access to a launching area is on one side of a shipping channel and the desired area for sailing is on the other, it may take over an hour to drive around the waterway to access another launching area compared to a few minutes to transit a shipping channel when it is safe to do so. A harbour is there to share. Why should shipping get to restrict so many open parts of our natural harbours?
We have discussed the proposal with the International Windsurfing Association and the Australian Windsurfing Association. We can find no other jurisdiction in Australia or the rest of the world which treats sailboards any differently from other small vessels in respect of crossing a shipping channel. Generally, the directions are to stay clear of shipping channels when possible and transit the channel when safe to do so. There are situations where sailboards are prohibited in relatively small areas of a waterway, for example within a few hundred metres of a commercial vessel loading/unloading facility, but not from being able to cross a channel when safe to do so.
The sport of sailboarding has changed significantly from a new activity over 40 years ago where there were many new operators learning the sport to a mature sport where like all other classes of small vessel there are many experienced operators. They should be treated no differently from any other sailing class.
Windsurfing NSW totally rejects the proposal in Question 13 to prohibit sailboarding in all shipping channels and requests that schedule 5 as it pertains to sailboards be deleted.
Please contact Lissa McMillan, President of Windsurfing New South Wales on 0409044581 to discuss how Maritime moves forward with this submission.

apologies for the above editing but SeaBreeze continually butchers copy from other text editors.

cheers hopefully one day we can windsurf in-between the heads in the harbour and continue to in botany bay.

TfNSW response to Lisa Ranson, secretary Foil Club. My bolding & underlining below.

Hi Lisa,

During the gathering of information for the remake of the Marine Safety Regulation 2016, Port Authority NSW brought to TfNSW's attention safety concerns about large ships interacting with small non-powered vessels being heightened in shipping channels.
The proposal at 5.2.2 - Safety in Shipping Channels reflects this concern by seeking to remove the potential safety hazard associated with a large merchant vessel colliding with a kitesurfer or sailboarder or to avoid the need for a merchant vessel being forced to take emergency evasive action to avoid such a collision. It also seeks to create a consistent approach across all trading ports.

A key concern is the limited ability of non-powered vessels to move out of the way quickly and precisely of approaching trading vessels in shipping channels, or for trading vessels to communicate with this craft if they are in the path of such vessels. In response to your question regarding the number of recorded recreational vessel incidents, the Port Authority NSW has provided data from the Vessel Traffic System (VTS), which provides a single point of contact for emergency reporting within the port limits and also ensures compliance with port procedures and regulations. They advised that there were 16 vessel incidents with non-powered craft between July - Dec 2022.

Port Authority NSW has advised that none of these incidents involved sailboarders or kite surfers. The proposal in the discussion paper was intended to gather feedback, which has now been received from a number of stakeholders. Thank you for providing your submission which is currently being reviewed alongside the other written submissions and survey feedback. The content of your submission, including comments regarding the important role of education for non-powered craft users and the area in question for the proposed ban in Botany Bay, will inform further consideration of any regulatory amendment.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have further questions.

Regards, Greer Banyer (she/her)
Manager, Policy and projects (Maritime)
Transport Safety Branch
Safety, Environment and Regulation

You might want to re-post this in the Winging forum. Has a chat to a ferry deckhand a while ago and he mentioned they'd raised the issue of wing foilers crossing the ferry lanes around Manly to management.
There's some good sailing to be had on the harbour, hate to lose access - pretty easy, just follow the rules.

I emailed Greer Banyer from Maritime for an update. She replied "The review is ongoing however due to the number of proposals the regulation will not remade until September 2025. I will let you know when there is more information to be shared."