Honorary wardens set for cup duty

By John Andrews

Private boat skippers may be recruited as honorary traffic wardens to cut the costs of policing the Hauraki Gulf during the America's Cup regatta.

Harbourmaster James McPetrie wants to enrol about 20 skippers and their launches to prevent mayhem among the thousands of spectator craft expected at peak race times.

Some volunteer skippers may be given powers to impose instant fines on boaties who break strengthened bylaws yet to be imposed by the Auckland Regional Council, the harbour's regulatory authority.

The rest of the skippers may just issue warnings to errant boat owners.

Mr McPetrie hopes the Minister of Transport, Maurice Williamson, will bend maritime safety rules so the honorary enforcement officers can assist police and ARC staff.

He believes that managing the harbour during the regatta will cost the ARC up to $2.5 million, including payment of honorary wardens' fuel bills.

More than 100 large, luxury vessels will also add to congestion in port by cup time.

Police are reluctant to have any of their 13 patrol boats peeled away from normal duties, the Coastguard plans to use one volunteer craft on each raceday of the 18-week regatta, but strictly for search and rescue work, and the Navy has six rigid hull inflatable boats for each raceday to patrol race-zone borders.

Team New Zealand and the America's Cup Challengers Association plan to have 20 patrol craft involved in managing the yacht races, but not water traffic to and from the venue.

Mr McPetrie believes collisions are inevitable. "What we need to do is avoid fatalities," he said.

Meanwhile, Auckland police have dropped a controversial plan aimed at attracting staff from other regions to work in Auckland during the cup. Interested police would have had to pay their own accommodation and receive no transfer payment.