ARCHIVE - Issue 16

IN GOD AND the Admiralty Chart we trust
Weather, wharves and seacocks
NZMTA Inc - New president fills remaining term
GETTING YOUR CHARTER BOAT ON LINE - WHAT'S AVAILABLE? THE PICOT REPORT Promotional feature 
Museum mixes Wellington's history and harbour 
Transport Accident Investigation Commission Reports

 "In GOD and the Admiralty chart we trust"  by Keith Ingram
This article has been written with the kind assistance of Commander Clive Holmes. Charge Hydrographic Surveyor and the Commanding Officer of HMNZS Resolution. In recognition of the professional seafarers who dedicate their careers to producing the nautical charts we trust our lives on.

In recent times much has been said about government-driven change, in particular change in the way our maritime charts are produced and administered.

With some justification, mariners by nature are sceptical of change, particularly when it comes to their most trusted navigational aid, the Admiralty chart.

This is because charts, as they were in Nelson's day and up until recently in New Zealand, were produced solely by the Hydrographic Division of the Royal New Zealand Navy. A recent quote by one retired lithographic draughtsman, Eugene Jones, an old drawer of Hydrographic charts, reminds us of the fact that charts, as they remain today are accepted throughout the world's maritime nations with the same degree of respect and confidence as accorded the Crown, our sovereign the Queen of England, and God himself. In fact the old adage "Put your trust in God and an Admiralty chart" meant what it said, and mariners from all nations have for centuries done exactly that.

Mariners from all walks of life have always given professional credence to their naval colleagues, the hydrographers and sailors who devote much of their lives to what is often regarded as the less glamorous profession of surveying the seabed to produce the charts we have come to trust.

The Royal New Zealand Navy's association with hydrographic survey work started back in the post-war years of 1946 and early 1947, when the then-Naval Board was faced with the problem of finding its own survey vessel and convincing the government of the day to meet the costs. Immediately after the Second World War it became obvious to maritime authorities here that the state of our coastal charting around New Zealand was vastly inadequate.

The option of getting a survey vessel from the Royal Navy was out of the question, due to their pressing commitments elsewhere. Besides, their moral obligation to provide hydrographic services had ended when the New Zealand Navy ceased to be a division of the Royal Navy with the formation of the RNZN in 1941. Coastal shipping was increasing, and as a maritime nation we had to rely upon our sea lanes for trade and international transport.

Eventually, in October 1949, Lachlan, made available by the Australian Government for purchase, sailed with a mixed crew from the Australian, Royal and New Zealand Navies for New Zealand. As was to become a common trait in hydrographic circles, the ship was pushed to start surveying Cook Strait the following month. Foveaux Strait was to follow. It was this "Press on - press on" drive of naval hydrographers in command of Lachlan to quickly get the job done that was soon to earn her the affectionate title of "Ghost of the coast" as she was constantly seen around the coast surveying our important inshore waters.

Lachlan was paid off in 1974 and replaced in 1977 by the recently converted ex Island Trader Moana Roa, commissioned Monowai. She in turn was replaced by the Navy's latest and most sophisticated research ship, HMNZS Resolution, in 1998, which introduced multi-beam echo sounder technology for the first time as a valuable tool for collecting hydrographic data for producing nautical charts.

Resolution appears

Resolution, like her predecessors, was purchased second-hand by the Ministry of Defence in October 1996 for $12 million. Formerly the US Naval Ship Tenacious, a former Towed Array General Oceanographic Surveillance Vessel (T-AGOS) displacing some 2300 tonnes, she was built in 1990. Reactivated at her port of Portland, Oregon, she was commissioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy as HMNZS Resolution on February 13, 1997, before sailing for New Zealand.

Once the ship arrived from the United States, the naval dockyard was quick to convert Resolution to her new role as a scientific research and hydrographic survey ship. Outwardly, the first noticeable change was a repaint into the traditional white as worn by her predecessors. But the major changes were to be the installation of electronics, in particular the new multi-beam sonar with its transducers mounted in a pod suspended on a strut under the hull.

In chart-making the hydrographic surveyor, like any surveyor ashore, has to rely on the best technology available at the time to complete his or her task. Ignoring the dramatic advances in positioning that has occurred in the past 50 years, the hydrographic surveyor has always faced the added challenge of determining the depth through a wet, salty, lumpy, murky, and at times dangerous medium.

Until the advent of the multi-beam echo sounder (MBES), the lead line and the single-beam echo sounder were effectively the only methods of accurately determining depth to required standards in order to meet the requirements of the maritime community.

However, advances in technology and the ever-increasing demands of the global economy have increased the expectations of the marine user for more information based on fact, rather than assumption. After three decades of international development, multi-beam technology now achieves the charting accuracy required, while providing the tools to analyse seafloor morphology.

Setting the scene

Without going into a lengthy history lesson, a brief account regarding the development of vertical measurement in water is required to set the scene.  Most of us are aware of the trusted lead line, which was almost dispatched into obscurity by the revolutionary single-beam echo sounder in the first half of this century.

The refinements in this technology came a long way in the intervening years, to a point in the 1980s where accuracies of a few centimetres were achieved down to depths of over 40m.  As good as this was at the time, the narrow-beamed single pulse of sound still only covered a small footprint of area along the lines steered by ships and boats, as the hydrographic surveyor attempted to cover as much of the survey area as possible.

Total coverage of the seabed was not possible unless the number of sounded lines were multiplied dramatically. Even then, given the dynamic nature of steering a vessel against wind and tide, it could never be guaranteed that the bottom was totally covered, and the cost in time of such methodology was, and still is, astronomic.

Consequently, other methods were developed to supplement single beam data. The generally preferred option involved towing a sonar fish transmitting high frequency beams of sound sideways to determine if any obstructions lay between the lines of sounding.

It was a good method, but only an indication was gained: the surveyor still couldn't guarantee the intervening depths to the accuracies required by the marine community without running a vertical narrow-beam echo sounder over the intervening area.

A cunning alternative was sweep sounding - a series of single-beam transducers suspended from a boom on either side of the boat. Although significantly more computing power was required for this method, it proved cost effective at slow speeds in shallow and calm waters, and generally satisfied the need for total coverage of the seafloor in critical areas.  However, calm conditions tend to be the exception rather than the rule, and the cost effectiveness of this method quickly evaporates as the surveyor waits on the boat ramp for the nor'easter to blow through, and sea conditions to return to a near flat surface again - so it was not a particularly good option, given New Zealand's climatic vagaries, and the few areas shallow enough to make it viable.

 Cost effective

A more cost effective method was required to achieve total coverage or "insonification", while maintaining orders of accuracy across the sea floor to meet the marine community's ever increasing demands and requirements.

Geologists, oceanographers and geophysicists led the demand for as much seafloor information as possible in support of research and hydrocarbon exploration.

Associated surveys in determining routes for supporting pipelines were also a key driver in developing multi-beam technology. From a commercial perspective, shipping companies and port authorities needed to exploit maximum draught vessels in order to improve efficiencies and increase profits.

Total confidence was required regarding minimum depths in approaches, channels and wharf areas in order to decrease minimum keel clearances and widen the envelope of working periods around the time of low water.  Associated industries would also benefit from the ability to achieve near total insonification, with dredging companies, for example, having a much better idea of the extent of dredging required or completed. Associated environmental concerns, such as the effect of dredge trailings on fish habitats, sediment transportation and beach erosion, could also be monitored more accurately.

The effect of near 100 percent insonification to required accuracy standards on nautical charts would lessen the risk of liability from vessels hitting objects lying between the lines of single-beam soundings, as occurred in the QEII's grounding off New York. 

For the surveyor, multi-beam coverage would reduce the need for interlining and investigations between lines of single beam sounding. Thus reducing the risk and liability for missing undetected obstructions, along with a decrease in the overall cost of the survey, meant savings in shorter vessel time on tasks, ultimately reducing overall costs.

Researchers initially led the way in the development of MBES technology. Their quest was for 100 percent coverage over large areas in order to view unprecedented detail of the sea floor for research purposes, such as plate tectonics, sediment transportation and fish habitats.

They were, and to a large degree still are not too interested in the absolute accuracy of depths measured. Possibly the greatest advance of all for the scientist was the opportunity to portray the results of their research to the customer or research funder in bold, three-dimensional colour graphics - a rather smart by-product of modern GIS systems, which has been incorporated into most MBES systems available today.

Exciting as the development was, the hapless surveyor was still bound to the ever-constraining accuracy standards required, a cornerstone of his profession. The early developmental and commercially available multi-beam sounders were unable to come close to meeting the International Hydrographic Organisation (IHO) accuracy standards for a number of reasons.

Before the advent of the Global Positioning System, or GPS, and the subsequent innovations of wide area DGPS (WADGPS), use of multi-beam technology was hamstrung by the inaccuracies of offshore positioning.

A single line of sounding was adequately positioned by fixing at relatively frequent intervals (2Mhz HF, LORAN C, etc) or infrequent intervals (Transit SATNAV) which used dead reckoning between fixes to fill in the gaps. But these methods were inadequate to maintain the depth accuracy required, as the multiple beams extended out on either side of the ship, where inherent errors grow exponentially with time delays.

 Vessel motion.  

Unfortunately for most of us, surveying the ocean is made more interesting by waves and swell. To maintain required accuracies, offsets (X,Y and Z) between sensors (transducers, GPS aerials, etc) must be known, and the intervening relative motion between these sensors, and the transmission and reception of the beams, must be calculated and applied to the measurement. The added effects of roll, pitch, heave and, in deep water, yaw are critical, especially where ray bending down through the salty and temperature-layered water mass is so critical for the outer beams. In association with GPS and aircraft gyroscopes, significant advances have been made in commercially available ship-fitted motion sensors, which now provide levels of accuracy in the order of 0.05% for heading, pitch and roll.

Computing power

Advances in microchip technology have seen the development of smaller units producing more power, increased range and better definition than their bigger, more cumbersome and generally more expensive predecessors.

The same principle applies to transducer technology. The individual physical elements within the transducer itself and the associated electronics, which form and fire the beam before discerning the signal from the general noise has it returns has significantly reduced in size and weight.

Finally, the key to coping with the various detracting elements, overcoming them, and combining them to generate IHO compliant data, was computing power.

Big ships could have massive computer compartments with relatively small computational power to handle much of the processing required for deep sea sounding. But small vessels conducting near shore or shallow work could not. Given the stunning processing power now available (along with three-dimensional imaging, sun illumination and user selectable grey scale or colour coding) the imaging capabilities, when supported by ground truthing (seabed sampling), reveals all sorts of information to all sorts of interests.  A few examples include:

• the extent of mud versus gravel in a given area

• coral outcrops versus a flat sea floor where fish habitats are being determined

• volcanic plugs or vents in close proximity to fault lines

• appropriate routes over suitable terrain for gas pipelines, and

• the topography of a sea mount where trawlers may wish to fly their nets in order to target valuable catches.   

This capability, when added to accurate depth and contour delineation, thrusts MBES to the forefront of consideration for anyone interested in the determining the nature and extent of their local or national coastal area,

Multi-beam sonar in New Zealand

Until recently, the availability of multi-beam data in New Zealand has been sourced from overseas for scientific research. In the early 1990s the French research vessel L'Atalante, fitted with the Simrad EM12, gathered data of *interest to the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and IGNS off Fiordland and East Cape. The fishing industry contracted the University of Hawaii's Sea Marc II, a towed underwater system, for mapping surveys off the Chatham Rise and the US National Science Foundation ice breaker Nathaniel B Palmer regularly gathers data en route to and from New Zealand using its Seabeam deepwater system. However, the first hydrographic survey MBES purchased in this country was acquired by the RNZN for fitting to HMNZS Resolution. 

The process of selecting an appropriate multi-beam system for Resolution naturally focused on the need to achieve IHO standards of accuracy. In consultation with other interested organisations within New Zealand, and following international expert advice, the RNZN (the national authority for hydrographic surveying at the time) determined that the chosen system should be capable of achieving (draft) IHO SP44 Order Two standards of accuracy from below the transducer to 4000m.

Without going into the process of tendering, evaluation and final selection, the RNZN selected the medium depth Hydrosweep MD2-30 multi-beam echo sounder, produced by STN ATLAS Marine Electronic's of Germany, one of the leading international manufacturers in this technology.

Hover over picture for caption

The MD2-30 is a 30kHz system designed for use in depths from 10m below the transducer down to the 4000m contour. Each side of the ship's track is insonified and detected separately and time sequentially by a "Mills Cross" T-type arrangement of transmitting and receiving transducer arrays. In Resolution, there are two vertical receiving transducer arrays and three horizontal transmitting transducer arrays mounted in a hull outfit suspended 1.5m below the keel.

The third transmitting transducer array, fitted to ensure depths of 4000m are achieved regardless of the bottom type, is situated on the bottom of the hull outfit between the port and starboard transmitting transducer arrays. Coupled with the POS/MV 320, one of the best motions sensors available, the MD2-30 provides coverage of up to six times the depth of water, down to 1000m (ie a 600m wide swath in 100m of water, or a six kilometre wide swath in 1000m depths), while maintaining IHO Order Two accuracies.   From 1000m to 4000m the relative width of the swathe decreases depending on the bottom type encountered.  Sea state is also an important limiting factor, and the POS/MV enables the ship to work into Sea State Five (2m mean swell height) before accuracy is degraded.

Classification of seafloor morphology, including wrecks and obstructions, is achieved by presenting a side-looking image, which can be displayed separately or as an underlay to real-time generated contours, using up to 2048 side scan pixels per sweep.  This side scan image is corrected for distortion and is true-to-scale on both axes.   

Niagara on the move

NZ Professional Skipper received a first hand experience of the accuracy and working sea state ability during a recent visit to the ship, when, as part of staff continuation training and proving of the system, Resolution carried out an evaluation run on one of New Zealand's most historic wrecks, the Niagara. Conditions prevailing at the time were ideal for the evaluation run, with a 2m northerly swell running, along with 40 knots of mean wind speed. The envelope of ideal working conditions was marginal, approaching what was thought to be its operational limits. Even in these conditions Resolution's position accuracy remained to within 1m, and the ship's excellent manoeuvring capability, taking windage into account, enabled her helmsman to still kept her within a metre of track, something the old hands on ships gone by could only dream of.

The Niagara, last charted in 1994, using the best equipment available at the time, was found to be just over two cables out of position. Now, we know a 12,000 ton wreck in 120m of water in a position north of the Hauraki Gulf and unaffected by the East Kermadec currents is not likely to move. This leaves the only option that she is in fact lying a quarter of a nautical mile north-west of her charted position, an interesting test which no doubt will be debated within hydrographic circles for some time.

Dockyard conversion

The conversion carried out in Auckland's Naval Dockyard costing nearly $19 million progressed quickly. Ship alterations and the installation of a ship's (RHIB) service boat, the vast array of electronics required, docking and the all important transducer hull outfit were finally fitted in November 1998. Manufacturer's trials of the new multi-beam sonar started a month later.

Because the Navy was not only still in the business of hydrographic survey work, but was also now working in a contestable area of contracting its survey work to LINZ, the equipment had to be proven and tested to meet the exacting standards required by IHO and LINZ, the client.

LINZ was very pro-active in assisting in developing the new multi-beam sounder standards. John Hughes-Clarke, from the University of New Brunswick in Canada, recognised as the world's expert in multi-beam sounders, conducted the peer review trials to prove the system. The time taken from the installation to peer review was less than two working weeks, with a total of five working weeks from woe to go, when she was to start commercial survey operations.

This was a very big task for any crew to learn the system and new skills required in such a short time. With pressures to complete the previous work of HMNZS Monowai on the Stewart Island survey, she quickly headed south, only to be plagued by the La Nina weather patterns.

This was no mean test of both technical and seamanship skills of a dedicated professional crew, as years of individual training was being brought together to achieve a commercial efficiency unheard of in survey circles in just one short shake-down survey.

This survey was completed on time and to budget, proving very early that the ship was quickly going to live up to its name of being not only one of the most sophisticated hydrographic research ships in the world today, but also cost efficient.

Not only must the ship run its traditional survey lines collecting data, it must also protect the acquisition of this data. Once editing is complete it must be stored and backed up on electronic tapes and secured.

Ships conversion fitted the budget.

The transition from an ex T-AGOS class ship to a hydrographic research vessel was not just a Naval achievement. The abilities of the dockyard and the good support from the German manufacturers of the MBES must be recognised, as they quickly provided many software upgrades to enable Resolution to meet the exacting operational survey standards in the short time available.

Resolution is in Lloyd's Classification, and New Zealand can be proud to have, for approximately $31 million, a capable vessel that our Australian, Canadian and English counterparts are spending some $100 million plus a piece for.

As Commander Holmes says, "Resolution was the deal of the century. And with Kiwi ingenuity along with modern technology, we now have a ship that is not only easy to operate, but also has roomy recreational and work spaces, single and two berth cabins complete with ensuites, and accommodation which is comfortable for the crew, both male and female, to work and live in. The accommodation on board meets civilian standards, as the ship is designed to spend up to 90 days at sea at a time."

"Originally our thinking was to have two crews trained to operate the ship on a rotational voyage system. This was subsequently changed, as we have settled into a routine of 11 days out and four days in." Many old salts from the days of Lachlan will remember a similar routine.

Part of our international requirements are to survey the 2000m line due to the international mineral rights claims under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea. But in the Pacific Ocean, work on this is somewhat hampered because of lack of funding, with many Pacific nations unable to afford to fund ship's survey costs.

Cabinet directive remains clear that New Zealand must maintain an inherent hydrographic capability. Search and rescue is still a big part of the ship's activity. However this remains unfunded and must come out of the Defence budget.

The ship's complement now has a basic crew of 31, plus 15 survey staff.  She carries 600 tonnes of diesel, burning 8 tonnes a day, and makes up to 16 tonnes of water a day.

Given the excitement of the new ship and her ability to perform, she has, however, like her predecessors, been converted. "The only commercial deficiency is in her transit service speed  of 10 knots when moving to and from the survey grounds," said Commander Holmes. "She suffers from some windage which takes a little to get used to. The 110 volt US standard ship's service power required the fitting of step-up transformers throughout the ship and cabins.

On the plus side, the Navy now has one of the most up-to-date hydrographic survey ships in the world with oceanographic research capability, all at a very low capital cost and operating budget," he said.

With Resolution, the Navy's hydrographic services have come into the world of commercial reality. Partly because of government change, with the introduction of LINZ, the Navy has had to adapt to these changes. It has become more efficient and has developed new methods of going about its business.

As part of Resolution's research duties,130 survey days are currently purchased by LINZ for hydrographic surveys around the coast. Once RNZN and the Defence Operation Technology Support Establishment have expended its allocated 60 research days, the ship would normally have 50 days available for hire to other customers.

Although this option has not yet been exercised, it is envisaged that the ability to collect quality medium depth multi-beam data will be an exciting prospect for research organisations within New Zealand.     

    Back to the Top

Weather, wharves and seacocks   by Dee Pigneguy

Soon the house was sold and they moved into a half-cab Daimler bus to go on a working holiday around New Zealand. They headed to the South Island in the winter and came north for boating in the summer. After a year or two they stopped travelling long enough to fit out an early Compass Yacht H28 hull and decks.

For Carol it was two years of getting dressed up, putting on the high heels, and slopping through a muddy paddock to work in a city legal office.

During one summer her husband got a job on the new Spirit of Adventure, and all went well until the regular cook was removed on drug charges. Carol received an urgent call to leap into the breach and come aboard as the cook. Leaving her two children with Grandma, she arrived at 0600 hours to begin duties. It was the Spirit's first trip out of the Hauraki Gulf, and there was much excitement, public interest and radio interviews upon her arrival in the Whangarei Town Basin.

Carol loved life at sea, catering for trainees on 10-day cruises. She enjoyed cooking and found the energy of the kids a real buzz. No wonder, she was just a kid herself. 

Carol cooked aboard for a further six trips, but young children needed to be attended to, and life returned to the routine of living in a bus. There was no washing machine and no power, and you couldn't just flush the loo and have the contents disappear as if by magic. She had a coal range to cook on, and batteries to power lights and water pumps.

These were pioneering times. By now the H28 had been sold, replaced by the rusty frames of a flat-bottomed 15.25m Ganley. This was to be the dream boat that, when finished, they would live on for ever and ever.

But for Carol, who was working in an office as a legal secretary by day and pioneering in an old bus after hours, the dream was crushed by the hard, physical labour needed to hold it all together.

She didn't intend the marriage to break up, after all she too wanted to sail off into the sunset. But she discovered you don't know your limit until you are pushed to it, and both physically and mentally, she couldn't take any more hard times and cramped conditions. The realisation came too late to save the marriage - the boat dream had trapped her in a nightmare.

Suddenly, after 12 years of marriage, she found herself alone with two children, and realised she'd better get a career organised if she was going to support herself. Although she was a legal secretary, she didn't want to be in an office for the rest of her life. After the freedom of life on the road, she wanted to be outdoors, preferably on the water.

She had always been in the habit of "lurking" around wharves, and it was here that someone advised her to go to the Marine Department to see if she had enough hours to study and sit for her Restricted Limited Launchmaster marine ticket. She studied, sat the exams and duly received her RLL in 1983. (This was updated in 1998 to a Commercial Launch Master, or CLM.)

Although she now had a ticket, there were no jobs for her, and she took whatever came up which allowed her to be on the water - cooking again on the Spirit of Adventure, odd jobs here and there - but no openings for her.

She got a job selling tickets for the Waiheke Shipping Company, and then in 1984 became the Information Officer for the Maritime Parks Board in their office in the Ferry Buildings. She was able to tell people about the wonderful islands in the Hauraki Gulf that she had enjoyed as a child aboard Avalon, as well as all the other wonderful places she'd visited while living for nine years in either the bus or the boat with her own family.

She was living in Beachhaven, close to her parents and cousins, while working and bringing up two children. She took a part-time job typing up marine survey reports for Iain Forsyth, boat builder and surveyor. She was obviously in love with boats, and this led to marriage in 1985 and straight back to the nappy bucket. Iain the boat builder turned into Iain the teacher, and they settled down to raise a family of four, including their own two young children.

Finally, in 1996, Carol saw an opportunity to get back on the water. Gulf Harbour Ferries was advertising for a hostess. It is not easy for a women with children to work in the maritime industry with the crazy hours, but she thought she could manage. By working  weekends and nights she did charter work as well as regular trips to TiriTiri Matangi and commuter runs to Auckland. Here she learned about commercial work aboard charter ferries. That she succeeded in coping with the industry demands as well as managing the children is a tribute to her tenacity.

While working with Gulf Harbour Ferries she got the opportunity to help set up a new  venture. One of Gulf Harbour's skippers was leaving to set up the new Pakatoa Cat ferry and charter business, and he asked Carol to help him.

Here was a new opportunity for her to work on a bigger boat, have more responsibility and better pay. By now, after all these years of having a ticket and never having an opportunity to use it, she was beginning to doubt that she ever would. The range of women's skills is often not recognised in this industry, and the "don't care" attitude they develop as a shell allows them to carry on with whatever job they are given, just because they love the water.

Nevertheless the opportunity to help set up a new venture was challenge enough. After two years, Carol, as mate, had a new opportunity with Warren Pederson, who taught her how to skipper the vessel. At last she wasn't just tying the boat up and making coffee.  Finally in 1999, Carol Forsyth spent six months as relieving skipper aboard the Pakatoa Cat, operating the ferry service from downtown Auckland to Coromandel. She discovered that once you have mastered the necessary skills, handling boats was easy. Like her first command aboard Avalon's dinghy, size was unimportant. Confidence and practice were the keys.

Carol discovered the New Zealand Womens' Maritime Association while in the library at Helensville when she picked up a Professional Skipper magazine. She attended a meeting and was rapt to meet women she immediately felt at ease with. It was a refreshing change to meet well-travelled women conversing on a range of subjects from weather and wharves to seacocks.

She joined and became newsletter editor, an easy job for someone with  the creative skills of journalism, photography and sketching, along with  practical computer and marketing abilities, all self-taught during her passage through the "university of life".

It was through this network that she met Sarah Watchman, and on her advice sat the Coastguard's Boatmaster course as a refresher on the latest rules, lights, buoys and beacons.

In this new millennium Carol is back working as a deckhand, selling tickets, cleaning toilets, making coffee and hauling  ropes. However none of these duties can take away her happy childhood memories of rope swings and happy times fossicking ashore as the Pakatoa Cat passes familiar Hauraki Gulf bays.

Carol Forsyth is now facing a question of her future at sea, which she sees as not just a "fun day out" but the serious business of providing a professional service and earning a living. I'm sure opportunities will become more apparent when this current non-sustainable season of the America's Cup is over, and the emphasis returns once again to the public wishing explore ashore this wonderful gulf, from small charter vessels with fares that ordinary families can once again afford.

The New Zealand Maritime Transport Association Inc
New president fills remaining term

As the new President of the NZMTA I wish all members and non-member operators a very happy and prosperous New Year, and hope you all had a merry Christmas.

 After Tony Parker's decision to resign as President for health reasons, as Senior Vice President I assured the Governing Committee that I would fill the role of President for the remainder of the term.

 Issues to be dealt with in the coming months are:

1. Fast ferry emergency policy (Auckland Harbour). Concern has been raised about the increasing number of fast ferries on Auckland Harbour, and procedures that are or are not in place in the event of an emergency, ie a collision, fire or sinking.

The Secretary will be contacting the Harbour Master, Coastguard and fast ferry operators, and I will be calling a meeting of the above to air these concerns and clarify a policy which is suitable for all.

 2. Strategic Planning Committee. A group representing the marine trade and transport sectors of the maritime industry has compiled a completely independent questionnaire which is published in this issue. As an interested bystander, our association and myself urge all operators to consider this questionnaire and return your completed copy.

 3. Conference 2000. July 18 to 20. As has been promulgated, the 2000 Conference is to be at Stewart Island. The members "down south" are getting into planning mode already to cater for the anticipated large number of registrations for what promises to be a truly unique event.

 4. Louis Vuitton and America's Cup Regattas. What an event for Auckland and New Zealand. Many operators and their clientele have experienced some excellent racing and more, perhaps the best, is yet to come, with vessels being well patronised.

To reiterate the Auckland Harbourmaster, the speed and traffic separation lanes seem to be coping well and to date no accidents have been reported. So, let the status quo preside.

 5. At its next meeting the Governing Committee will be considering a proposal for a website on the Internet. This will be an interactive site where members may be linked to their own sites and, in turn, the association's site will be linked to various others. It is an exciting concept and will assist operators who wish to take advantage of this aspect of technology.

On a personal note, and on behalf of the Governing Committee and members of the NZMTA, I would like to conclude my first column in NZ Professional Skipper by acknowledging and thanking Tony Parker for the untiring work and commitment he has devoted to the association as President of the NZMTA, supported by his wife, Toni and their family.

Laurence McLeod

President

THE PICOT REPORT Promotional feature from Picot's Charter Guide
GETTING YOUR CHARTER BOAT ON LINE - WHAT'S AVAILABLE?

 1. Free listings. There are hundreds of tourism or boating-related sites desperate to build up their databases (and their usefulness to their visitors) will list your business for free. All will show your contact details, and some include links to your e-mail and website (if you have them).

Many will allow you a few lines of text as well. Whenever you come across a list of services related to your field, hunt around the page and find out how to add your business to it. If you can't find the link, e-mail your request to its web master.

 2. Do it yourself web sites (home pages). These are provided by a number of ISPs (such as Xtra) or home page web sites, and add their own advertising banners to your page. These are fairly simple to create and don't cost anything, but use a standard layout that may not suit everyone. They can be difficult to promote and lack a professional image.

 3. Paid directory listings. These are often offered as an extra by the specialist boating or tourism-related free listing sites. They can be expensive, with many charging up to $US500 per year for an e-mail link, a single photograph and 200 words of text. If you are considering joining such a directory, your best approach is to contact a few of its existing advertisers and ask them what they think of it. The advantage of being in such a directory is that they will (supposedly) take care of promoting your site to your target market. The Charter Guide is a directory.

4. Your own web site. This is where you have full control over your content, links and promotion. For about $100 per annum extra you can have your own domain name, or you can tack on to that of your ISP. Unless you have considerable computer skills you will require a web page designer to set up and maintain it for you.

The hardest part of setting up is to find a designer who really understands how the Internet works. The Internet is littered with $20,000 sites that just don't deliver the goods, and all too often a designer's technical ability is inversely proportional to their ability to communicate with other human beings. Once your site is up, it will require maintenance. A lot of search engines will drop a site unless it is updated regularly, and fresh content is essential to ensure your visitors bookmark and revisit it.

 THE FOUR SECRETS OF A USEFUL TOURISM WEBSITE

1. Content. Your visitors are looking for information. They don't want mushy sales talk, and they don't want to have to muck around contacting you for essential information. Visitors for whom English is a second language need all the help you can give them regarding clear and concise information if they are to bother reading your page. 

2. Design. A well-designed web site is one that makes it easy to find what you are looking for and is quick to load. As in print, a picture is worth a thousand words, but while your picture is loading your visitor's attention is wandering! Detail costs time, so save the high resolution for photographs that really need it.

The same web page can appear totally differently on different computers, so the designer needs to ensure that his text isn't obscured when a background colour changes a bit. A smaller screen can lose text off the end of the page if it is not correctly laid out, and fancy fonts can be randomly replaced with really odd stuff.

3. Promotion. Promotion of a site begins at the design stage. Search engines roam the Internet continually, indexing every page they find. They look at the first few lines of text on each page, as well as at the hidden descriptions and tags given each picture and frame. Every single page of your site needs to provide these engines with sensible, worthwhile information that tells the reader exactly what your page is about.

Providing a web address with the smallest of print advertisements gives home-based potential clients access to everything you wish to tell them about your business. But to really drive visitors to your site your best tool is the web itself.

As in print advertising, there are any number of places on the web that will be happy to sell you a listing or a banner with a link to your site. Unlike print advertising, however, you can measure their success. Demand regular, click-through statistics before you sign up, and monitor the results of every paid link.

The web is also full of sites that will give you a link for free if they think your site is of interest to their visitors. Some of the Charter Guide's most productive links cost nothing to set up, and continue to deliver us dozens of visitors every week.

 4. Backup. You need a real live person on hand to answer queries quickly.

Internet users are not generally prepared to wait more than 24 hours for a response to their inquiries. The faster you reply, the more chances you have of turning an inquiry into a booking. You should be checking your e-mail at least as often as you check your answerphone.  

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NZPS: The old maritime museum in Wellington is gone, replaced by an amalgam of a traditional maritime museum and a Wellington social history museum. How did this happen?

A: With the decline of traditional commercial seafaring and the number of people interested in transport history, there has also been a decline in the number of people interested in traditional maritime museums. Look at the people who are preserving old ships or locomotives or aeroplanes. They all tend to have grey hair and beards. We didn't want a shrine to the ancient mariner, and find one day in the future that we would open our doors and nobody would come in.

If you look at maritime museums around the world, even the great ones like Greenwich and Liverpool, you will find they have been edging towards social history. They are looking for ways to attract women and ethnic minorities, and ways to make maritime history more acceptable to a diversity of people.

Consider also that Wellington has never had a museum of its own, although there has always been a national museum here. So we've mixed maritime and Wellington social history together. It's a good fit, as Wellington's social history and its harbour are inextricably linked, like a foot into an old slipper.

NZPS: With Wendy Adlam, a member of the New Zealand Women's Maritime Association here, you are well on your way to attracting women.

A: Yes, Wendy is working to build up a collection of women's maritime history. During Suffrage Year we ran a very successful conference of women's maritime history. People at the time were a little sceptical, but this successful conference turned out to be a world first.

The Americans or Brits hadn't done anything like it. The NZWMA, now a strong organisation with lots of members, was a direct result of our conference. We are proud of that, and in the future we would like to display their photographic exhibition in our temporary exhibition space.

 NZPS: How is this museum structured?

A: We are managed by the Wellington Museums Trust, which administers four facilities: the Wellington City Art Gallery, Capital E (the children's facility) the Colonial Cottage Museum and of course our Museum of Wellington, City & Sea.

The museum's trust is at arm's length from the Wellington City Council, which provides the core funding for the trust to deliver arts and culture heritage services on behalf of the museum. Being at arm's length allows the trust to generate income through sponsorship, which a city council would be unable to do.

 NZPS: Where does the funding come from?

A: We have an annual grant from the city council which is negotiable, but works on three-year cycles, which guarantees some certainty and allows us to plan ahead. Sixty percent comes from the council, and we generate the other 40 percent ourselves.

We are the first Wellington facility to have a door charge, $5 for adults and $2.50 for children, or there is a family pass for $12. I must say that we had about 5000 people through in the last few days, and not one person complained. You really have to put it into perspective. If you take a family of four to McDonalds for lunch, it's going to cost you a lot more than $12. I ask you, which is the better value?

 NZPS: Do you have a friends organisation?

A: Friends of the Maritime Museum has been running for a number of years now. When I came here nine years ago there were problems over funding, and even a question of being able to retain the building. Knowing that an informal group of supporters in the community could help, we formalised the Friends of the Wellington Museum, which has a specific maritime interest.

We have continued to use that organisation to help and support us whenever we have problems, particularly at draft annual plan time, when we alert the membership to particular problems. I must say they have been extraordinarily successful in writing letters and submissions, and lobbying on behalf of the museum to influence the process.

 NZPS: Do these supporters also provide the volunteers?

A: We have two organisations. One is the friends, which has been active for six or seven years, and then we have The Foundations Club, a new organisation of recently joined members who are interested in the social history of Wellington.

As well, we have several organisations that are affiliated to us, such as the  New Zealand Ship and Marine Society. We have a potential public membership of 2500 which we can call upon. We do use volunteers, but during the redevelopment we haven't had the opportunity. In the future they will help with guiding, research and other areas as the need arises.

 NZPS: What facilities do you have for research?

A: Pressure to open on time and to budget means we haven't had time to develop the research facility to the degree we wish. Our upstairs research room is sponsored by the New Zealand Ship and Marine Society, and we are building a second room to house the collection items.

We have an extensive archive collection, over a kilometre if we stacked them end on end. As well, the library and chart collection is huge. We're working on the 80/20 rule, which is that probably 20 percent of the collection can answer 80 percent of the enquiries.

Our archivist/librarian will be in charge of the research room, which will contain the commonly used archives and library material. Anyone who wants to do in-depth research will have access to our collection housed at the Wellington City archives, where there is a reading room for those who need to go through several boxes of archives.

 NZPS: What is your relationship with other maritime organisations?

A: The New Zealand Ship and Marine Society is probably one of the older nation-wide maritime history and research organisations in the country. They have active branches in New Plymouth, Napier and Tauranga, and the national executive based in Wellington. It complements the Auckland Maritime Society and the Otago Maritime Society.

Many of their members also belong to the Friends of the Maritime Museum. We have a number of organisations based here, for example the Merchant Navy Association and the Maritime Archaeological Association, and we are a centre for maritime people in the Wellington area, as well as nation-wide.

Supporting these small organisations is a vital part of our mission. Let's be real about this. While we might provide fax facilities, collect their mail or let them use our meeting room, they give us enormous help in terms of providing volunteers, supporting us and spreading our message. We couldn't really have developed this museum without their input into the two focus groups we formed to help us decide what stories we should tell.  These groups are in effect the experts, given that we don't have large university faculties here with particular experts in maritime history.

Most of the people who are involved in maritime history and research tend to be amateurs, for want of a better word. Nevertheless they are very knowledgeable about their subject, and we would have been foolish not to use their knowledge and expertise to help us develop this museum.

NZPS: How will you enhance your collection in the future?

A: We are fortunate that back in 1972, when the Wellington Harbour Board set up the museum, New Zealand was undergoing a period when maritime history was changing rapidly and quite dramatically in terms of people no longer coming to New Zealand by sea.

Containerisation had arrived and coastal shipping had died, but there were many people out there who still had archives and objects that related to the golden days, if you like, of our maritime history.

We were the first dedicated, purpose-built maritime museum in the country specifically set up to collect maritime history. Our first curator, Jack Churchouse, was a great magpie of a man who went out there and literally bucketed and shovelled vast quantities of maritime objects into the museum.

During the redevelopment we were very careful to protect the museum collection. In fact we have a trust policy on this which states that we will maintain and enhance the collection, as that is where our strength lies.

We have a very comprehensive collection, but we are actively collecting in the archive field, which is my own particular interest. I believe in putting everything in a maritime context. Ships are built by people, they are sailed by people for people, for a specific purpose. They are not just built as a piece of technology. Sailing ships are works of art as well as functional, utilitarian objects.

But for me it is the people's stories associated with the objects and the archives which have the power to make us learn about past eras. The experience of people who were there - the oral histories, the photographs, the ship's logs, the letters - in fact the recording of their lives and times.

 NZPS: Tell me about your relationship with the Harbour Board?

A: The Harbour Board, which was founded in 1880, administered the port up until 1989, when it was abolished under local government restructuring. Its functions were split three ways: the Port of Wellington, Centre Port, which runs the commercial port and is in charge of administration; the Wellington Regional Council, which is in charge of the Harbour Master's Department; and the Wellington City Council, which controls the boat harbours.

It seems to work, but I wonder sometimes that if there is a major disaster who will actually be responsible for coordination? Who will call the shots? In former times Harbour Masters were just that, and if they said get 50 men and take three vessels and go there, it happened.

In terms of our relationship with the Port of Wellington, we have a very good, close, personal working relationship. They have sponsored the museum, provided storage for some of our larger objects, use our facilities for functions, and in the future will be developing an interpretation centre.

 NZPS: Are you networking with other maritime museums?

A: In the future, networking possibilities are enormous, both here in New Zealand and overseas. We have a close working relationship with some Australian maritime museums, and we are looking at working together to occasionally bring in northern hemisphere touring exhibitions.

In New York, for example, there is an exhibition featuring Ernest Shackelton's boat journey in the James Caird. Shackelton and his men completed one of the great open boat journeys of all time in this little lifeboat, from the Antarctic to Elephant Island and then to South Georgia. People here would queue in the street to see this exhibition.

 NZPS: In this rapidly changing world, what process does the museum have in place to preserve the future availability of archives?

A: When people leave material to this museum they fill out quite extensive documentation, and both parties keep copies.

We have a very strong rule that we will not take on anything that we believe we cannot look after, which is part of the reason that at this point we do not have any floating vessels. We don't have the financial resources to look after them. You would know, having owned Te Aroha, that once you take on historic vessels you have a responsibility to look after them.

We also have enshrined in trust management policy a process for dealing with gifted material, if for any reason in the future we cannot look after it. All possible scenarios are covered in the collection management policy. The first step is that it must be offered back to the descendants before the second step is invoked.

NZPS: Your shop is really unusual. How did you achieve this?

A: We recruited a lady with a museum diploma who has worked in the retail sector, and gave her a free rein. We wanted a gift shop that people could come in to buy presents for that special occasion, and also for the boating relative who has everything.

We have an enormous collection here, and in the future our shop will reflect the contents of this museum as well. It's a key part of our business plan to support this museum with our gift shop.

NZPS: And finally, who is Ken Scadden?

A: I grew up on a farm in the Wairarapa. I completed two history degrees at the University of Victoria in Wellington, and a post graduate diploma at the University of New South Wales.

I come to the job from an academic point of view. When I arrived here the critics said "You're not a seafarer. What are you doing running a maritime museum?"

People forget that seafarers run ships, and museum people run museums, so when I get really exasperated, I ask my critics, "How many curators at the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Cairo were pharaohs in this, or any past incarnation?"

I've also mucked around in boats, fishing, diving and wreck diving. As well, I have a strong interest in research, nautical writing and seafaring, and I now have an ability to add to the Wellington dimension.

Transport Accident Investigation Commission Reports
- Grounded tug ran out of room
- Double trouble for Union Rotoiti
- Passenger not briefed before taking the helm

The grounding of a tug, a collision with a second tug and the destruction of a navigational beacon occurred when the container vessel Gao Cheng was entering Nelson at about 0100 hours on December 28, 1998.

The Gao Cheng was about 400m into the turn into the harbour when the pilot suffered a sudden loss of vision in his right eye. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission says that this probably distracted the pilot, causing him to lose situational awareness and leave the helm hard to port for too long, causing the Gao Cheng to come close to grounding on the port side of the channel.

The analysis of the accident was restricted, as the Gao Cheng departed Nelson for Japan at 1200 hours the same day, and no longer visits New Zealand. As a result the commission could not interview the master or the crew. The Gao Cheng was 147m in length and displaced 12,739 tonnes. The pilot and master had worked together during previous visits to the port. Two Port Nelson tugs, the Huria Matenga and the W H Parr, were standing by.

As the pilot was about 400m into his turn, he reported that his right eye began watering profusely. He became distracted, lost situational awareness and the Gao Cheng came close to grounding on the port side of the channel.

One of the tugs grounded while attempting to take up position on the port bow of the ship. As the Gao Cheng passed the grounded tug, the second tug, which was standing by on the port side of the ship, had insufficient room to manoeuvre clear, and collided with the grounded tug, which was then pushed onto the number five spar light navigational beacon, sheering the beacon off below the waterline.

The Gao Cheng berthed at Brunt Quay without further problems, and suffered minor scrapings, while both tugs had minor denting to the bulwarks and slight damage to the tyre fenders.

In its analysis of the accident, the commission said the pilot appeared to become distracted when he lost vision in his right eye, which began to water profusely. As the master and officer-of-the-watch had been unaware of anything untoward until after the tugs had collided, it would suggest that a less than optimum standard of bridge resource management was being practised, said the commission.

The pilot's decision not to inform the master of his eye problem was understandable in the circumstances, but he could have advised the tug skippers. The skipper of the Huria Matenga might not have taken for granted that the pilot had assessed the room available for his tug to manoeuvre.

From a medical point of view, the pilot had passed the required medical and eyesight tests, but was not required to report any changes to his health to the port company. He had been under clinical investigation for a range of visual problems before the accident.

Safety issues identified included the requirement for pilots to undergo regular medical examinations, and to report any change of medical fitness which could affect their ability to perform their duties.

After receiving the safety recommendations, the Director of Maritime Safety reported that the MSA planned to introduce a maritime rule during 2000 which would prescribe appropriate and similar standards to the SCTW-95 medical standard to pilots. The historical anomaly whereby pilots must hold a masters foreign going certificate, but need not maintain it as a current document, was being addressed.

Double trouble for Union Rotoiti

The roll on/roll off cargo vessel Union Rotoiti, with 19 crew on board, was on passage from Melbourne to Auckland on Friday, April 23, 1999, when she encountered heavy weather. All her officers were highly experienced.

The Union Rotoiti is a 203.1m long vessel of 22,228 tonnes built in 1977. At the time she was owned by Union Shipping New Zealand Limited and chartered to the Australia-New Zealand Direct Line.

Her propulsion is three 5540kW Wartsila diesel generators providing power to two pairs of electric propulsion motors driving two four-bladed controllable pitch propellers. Her normal operating speed is 16 knots. Cargo was carried on two internal decks and one weather deck.

The master deviated from his course to avoid the leading quadrant of a depression and reduce the motion of the vessel. At 0400 hours the logbook recorded winds of 40 knots, sea scale eight, swell scale seven (average length, heavy), and overcast but clear conditions.

Due to filtration problems caused by blistering and flaking of the internal lining of the service tank, which the commission found the shipÕs engineers could not have detected, the Union Rotoiti lost all power for about 50 minutes at around 0515 hours on April 23. Her fin stabilisers became ineffective, and she lay broached to the sea and swell, rolling violently through an arc of about 70 degrees, about 50 degrees to port and 20 degrees to starboard. Three crew members suffered minor injuries.

By the time motive power control was returned to the master at 0610 hours, cargo above and below decks had shifted substantially. Eight 40-foot and four 20-foot containers were lost overboard. A phenol tank had also fractured, requiring a constant wash down. Very little cargo on the main vehicle deck escaped damage, while cargo stored at the aft end of the lower hold was later found to have shifted.

Safety issues identified by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission's report included:

• upper deck containers located on worn or damaged deck sockets

• incomplete locking of twist locks within the upper deck stow

• the use of stacking cones between tiers of containers in the main vehicle deck, where twist locks would be more appropriate

• ambiguous instructions in the cargo securing manual for lashing containers in the main vehicle deck

• an over-reliance on the ability of the stabilisers to always provide a steady platform, and

• the incomplete dissemination of lessons learned from a previous occurrence.

The commission found that had all the accessible twist locks been locked and the equipment, both fixed and portable, been in good condition, the extent of the damage and lost cargo would not have been as great.

Many of the deck sockets were sufficiently worn or damaged to fail to properly secure the containers. Had twist locks been used between tiers or chain lashing used to secure the top of the stow of containers in the main vehicle deck, the amount of cargo movement might have been reduced. There was also insufficient crew to adequately check and lash cargo during busy periods of cargo work, and the container lashing equipment on board was generally in poor condition, said the commission.

Following the accident, the service tank was scraped and cleaned, and twist locks rather than stacking cones used on the main vehicle deck to locate first-tier containers into designated slots, or where containers were stacked more than one high.

The Australia-New Zealand Direct Line, which took over ownership of the Union Rotoiti in September, said it now employed stevedores to lash cargo on all decks, and it would carry out a full inspection of cargo securing arrangements during a planned dry-docking in February.

After receiving recommendations to the chief executive, the company reported to the commission that it would review the cargo securing manual to address any ambiguities.

 Passenger not briefed before taking the helm

The 12.5m two-masted sailing schooner City of Dunedin had one skipper and four passengers on board when she struck rocks off Bobs Cove on Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown on the evening of May 8, 1999.

The yacht had left the jetty at about 1650 hours, and began motoring to Bobs Cove. There was a sou westerly wind of 15 to 20 knots. Once settled on course, skipper and guests had shared two Get-together drinks.

An inexperienced guest was left in charge of the helm during the turn into Bob's Cove, while the skipper checked exhaust fumes coming from down below, and a few moments later the City of Dunedin grounded on a rocky outcrop. The ensuing fire was put out with the aid of extinguishers and buckets of lake water. Fire Service officers, who arrived shortly after by water-taxi, cooled any remaining hot spots.

There were no injuries and the yacht was refloated on May 10. The skipper, who had Local Launchmaster and Commercial Launch Master certificates, said he had made the trip some 1400 times and felt he had no need for a compass, which was not carried on board. The yacht was owned by Gibbston Valley Estates Limited, and was under a safe ship management scheme.

The commission said it was inappropriate for the passengers to steer the yacht unsupervised, especially after drinking alcohol. It was also unwise for the skipper to share the second glass. The turn into Bob's Cove was tighter than the skipper would have used, bringing the yacht too close to the headland and inside the waratah marking the outcrop.

The commission found that the grounding had caused the exhaust high-rise pipe to spring from the mast support where it had been wedged for some considerable time, allowing vibration to wear the pipe flat and produce pin holes. The fire was caused by the hot exhaust pipe and exhaust gases escaping from a hole in the exhaust pipe contacting the dry and oil-impregnated plywood which enclosed it.

There had been a history of exhaust fumes in the cabin of the City of Dunedin, but the skipper had not discovered the cause. Given the problems, removing the fixed cover would have been a prudent measure in the search for faults. Had the fault been discovered and rectified, the grounding and subsequent fire probably would not have occurred.

As the fire had set the switchboard and radio console alight, the use of a mobile telephone to call emergency services was timely and appropriate.

After the accident, the exhaust high-rise was renewed, using stainless steel, and bracketed into position to eliminate movement.

The commission recommended the director of Gibbston Valley:

amend the ship safety manual to include an inspection of the complete engine exhaust system in the vessel's annual maintenance plan

fit a compass as required by the Ships Compasses Regulations 1971

brief passengers before leaving the wharf, and

provide appropriate instructions if passengers take over the helm, which they should do only under strict supervision, during non-critical sections of the passage, and when not under the influence of alcohol.

The director of Gibbston Valley adopted the safety recommendations.

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Commission protects your evidence by John Britton Chief Executive, TAIC

 After an accident, humanity's first response, and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission's sole purpose, is to learn the most important lesson: How to stop it re-occurring.

Often the primary concern after an accident or incident is "What can be done to prevent a similar accident claiming my life?"

People must not suffer in vain. Truth, too, can die in an accident, and with it the knowledge to save lives in future. The Transport Accident Investigation Commission Act 1990 safeguards information and helps truth survive, allowing those with vital information to speak freely without fear, for the future benefit of humanity.

Parliament formed the TAIC in 1990, stating: "The principal purpose of the Commission is to determine the circumstances and causes of accidents and incidents, with a view to avoiding similar occurrences in future, rather than to ascribe blame to any person." Parliament requires the TAIC to investigate significant accidents and incidents in aviation, rail and marine transport and in doing so, gave the TAIC unusually wide powers to obtain information and to protect that information. The main output of a TAIC accident or incident report is safety recommendations to prevent future accidents

The Commission's safety recommendations are not mandatory. Instead, such operators, industry organisations or the Maritime Safety Authority are encouraged to voluntarily carry out the recommendations. Alternatively, in some cases, laws or rules maybe made requiring the MSA to enforce them. The TAIC focuses on safety, is completely separate of the MSA and the Police, and cannot prosecute or remove a sea-going licence.

Any statement you give a TAIC investigator cannot be used against you in a court of law, nor can anyone else get access to those statements (unless you decide to give your statements to someone else: what you do with your information is up to you). This protection of your evidence is backed up by law, to reinforce the TAIC's sole purpose of preventing similar accidents. Only the information relevant to the analyses of an accident is made public, in the form of the TAIC report.

The TAIC has three marine investigators. Before being published, their reports are given to the people who were deeply involved in the accident to comment on. Independent industry assessors, such as Keith Ingram, also review the reports, and the final reports are scrutinised and approved by a panel of three Commissioners.

The outcome of all this is that each report is a carefully researched document which in some cases has far-reaching effects for improving marine safety in New Zealand, and occasionally world-wide, for example the TAIC's reports on high-speed ferry incidents and seafarer fatigue.

The TAIC publishes about 20 reports a year. At the moment it is investigating the blackout of the Aratere, the Arahura rescue boat accident, two Shotover jet-boat accidents, and the near-grounding of the Kakariki.

 (This article was written in response to NZ Professional Skipper's request, to allay growing fears within industry, of not talking or telling the truth to investigators of marine accidents for fear of prosecution. Ed.)

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Safety Notices

Boats should carry lifejackets

Lifejackets should be compulsory on all recreational boats. That's a recommendation from the Pleasure Boat Safety Advisory Group following New Zealand's first study of boating accidents and fatalities. Almost 10,000 people registered their opinions.

The group said too many boaties died in New Zealand because they do not carry lifejackets (personal flotation devices), and don't know enough about safe boating practices. It said the leading cause of fatalities between 1994 and 1997 was a failure to wear lifejackets. 'Around 37 deaths might have been prevented in this period if lifejackets had been worn.'

As 75 percent of all fatalities were potentially preventable (or at least the chances of survival greatly increased) by the simple act of wearing a lifejacket, the group said the case for introducing rules to make lifejackets compulsory was overwhelming.

'At between $50 and little more than $100 per lifejacket, the price of saving a life is very cheap,' said the Group Chairman and Director of the Maritime Safety Authority, Russell Kilvington. It strongly recommended that personal flotation devices be worn:

• when operating all types of small, open recreational craft

• in rough seas or adverse weather, crossing bars at river or harbour entrances and on fast-flowing rivers, and

• in any other situation where the skipper, in fulfilling his or her responsibilities, as set out in section 19 of the Maritime Transport Act 1994 deems necessary.

The group, made up of representatives of 16 boat safety organisations, also recommended that regional councils be given more resources to enforce the recommendation, as well as existing national safety regulations.

'Along with failure to wear lifejackets, a poor knowledge of safe boating practices among many boat owners is a leading cause of accidents and fatalities,' said Kilvington. Most often that was poor judgment of the weather or sea conditions, inaccurate assessment of the boat's ability to cope with rough seas, and inappropriate action when events turned risky.

The group also recommended:

• increased spending on voluntary safety education programmes that better target key gaps in boating knowledge which contribute to accidents and fatalities national coordination of education programmes

• development of guidelines on appropriate vessel use, care and maintenance, and advice on stability and flotation issues

• better support for and use of voluntary launch wardens to educate the public and enforce boating safety legislation, and

• increased attention on collecting data to support education initiatives, particularly regarding alcohol use and boating.

Kilvington said the group had carefully considered boat registration and 'skipper licensing', but was not convinced they were warranted 'at this time.'

With the exception of the proposed lifejacket rule, the group said the focus should be on promoting a 'self-help' approach to safe behaviour through education, rather than further regulation.

Some of the group's recommendations would require a modest amount of funding, Kilvington said, but a number could be developed within existing resources.

The group, which was convened by the MSA, has been forwarded to the Minister of Transport for government consideration. 'We will be looking to discuss the group's recommendations with the Minister in the New Year.'

The study was set up to answer the question 'Is there a boating safety problem in New Zealand? If so, what is the problem, and what are the options for addressing the problem?'

 Copies of the report are available free by e-mail from nicola.tohill@msa.govt.nz or printed copies are available for $17.95 from Nicola Tohill, External Relations Administrator, Maritime Safety Authority, PO Box 27006, Wellington.

Read these stories and more in NZ Professional Skipper !

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