Rewards for safe boaties

By ROBIN BAILEY

The Herald is doing it again. Last October we began a safe boating promotion to celebrate 12 months of reporting on things maritime in the region.

The exercise was so successful all participants expressed their eagerness to stage a repeat performance.

This time things are a little different. The promotion will start at the Imtec boat show at Princes Wharf from August 7 to 11. It will run through to late November, using the $62,000 prize package to spread the message of skipper responsibility.

It is the first stage of the Safe Summer 2002-03 America's Cup campaign to ensure safety on the water during the Louis Vuitton challenger series and the defence by Team New Zealand next year.

WaterSafe Auckland co-ordinated a successful project for the first summer and will again be taking the leading role this time.

Project manager is Bronwyn Coers, who masterminded the first Safe Summer, which resulted in no serious incidents on the water.

Her role will again involve liaison with the agencies and organisations responsible for ensuring responsible behaviour on the water. These include the Auckland Regional Council, Coastguard Boating Education, Auckland Volunteer Coastguard, Alac, Water Safety New Zealand and the Maritime Safety Authority.

"A big part of my job will be ensuring the commercial organisations that support Safe Summer get value for their input," Bronwyn Coers says.

"This means ensuring our radio campaign on Newstalk ZB gets the right messages across and the media aspects project the right safe skipper and boating education.

"We are not about enforcement or waving a big stick. Once again we will be on the water rewarding boaters who are properly equipped, having lifejackets aboard and generally doing it right ... and observing the rules of the sea."

Harbourmaster James McPetrie has ultimate responsibility for safety on the water at all times. The America's Cup puts huge numbers of boaters into the equation, which ensures his Auckland Regional Council maritime operations unit is kept on its toes.

Senior Sergeant Martin Paget is in charge of the police on-the-water activity. He is already working closely with the harbourmaster to develop and fine tune the strategies they put in place for the first defence.

Both men welcome the early start to Safe Summer by adding the Herald campaign to the promotional mix well ahead of the start of the Louis Vuitton in October.

"It is an excellent way to emphasise skipper responsibility and encourage people to discover how much they don't know by pondering over basic safety and boat-handling questions in the competition," McPetrie says.

"Everything that adds value to the Safe Summer budget is important."

The Auckland Regional Council is one of the major supporters of Safe Summer 2002-03. The original budget prepared by WAI was $259,000 with additional added value from sponsorship already assured of $400,000. However, because no Lottery Grants Board funding was available this year and nothing was forthcoming from national Government coffers, the core $259,000 amount has not yet been secured.

"It is disappointing that neither the Minister for the America's Cup nor the Minister for Tourism could find $150,000 to ensure the project is properly funded," the harbourmaster says. "We know full well how effective the first Safe Summer proved, with 89 per cent of those surveyed recalling the safety messages. We must ensure this one is just as successful.

"Perhaps now the election is over the Prime Minister can lean on someone to ensure the full funding for the programme is forthcoming. Considering the first America's Cup defence was worth $600 million to the nation, $120,000 for safety doesn't seem unreasonable."

There was no reluctance from the major players in last year's Herald safety promotion to support the second one.

Paul Adams, the managing director of Stabi-Craft, the Invercargill company that is providing the prize boat, says his company always supports anything that works toward safer boating.

"We feel the skipper-responsibility aspects of the campaign are particularly important," Adams says.

"Our range of recreational boats evolved from rugged workboats operating in the often stormy waters of Foveaux Strait.

"But no matter how safe the boat, the thing that matters most is the operator. Unless the skipper knows and obeys the rules of the sea and understands all the basics of prudent seamanship, tragedies will continue.

"The first Herald contest helped to emphasise that message and we are happy to become the major sponsor once again."

nzherald.co.nz/americascup