The only specialised marine publication in Oceania that focuses on the maritime industry, from super yachts to small craft to large commercial ships, including coastal shipping, tugs, tow boats, barges, ferries, tourist, sport-fishing craft
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LETTERS CONTINUED vessels as master, fully supports my comments. For all her many virtues, the Spirit of New Zealand had less safety margin and convenience of power in her excellent Gardner motor than we had enjoyed with the Spirit of Adventure, and less than I and others considered desirable. The new Yanmar motor fitted during her 2010 refit certainly overcomes these shortcomings. Captain Barry Thompson, Auckland KIWI PRIDE Dear Sir Thank you for the article on the Clipper IV. Very accurate with the facts and great that you pointed out this is a New Zealand- made boat from her design, build and propulsion systems. We do have reason to have pride in New Zealand-made. Wishing you continued success with Professional Skipper. Allan Drinkrow, Pine Harbour Ferries COROMANDEL COMMUNITY Dear Sir Your publication remains the only magazine I read cover to cover each time it arrives. We have spent the last 12 months forming Coromandel Sea Rescue (CSR) to replace the service Tom Whittle has performed for Coastguard over the past 25 years up here in the northwestern Coromandel sea area. Coromandel Sea Rescue (CSR) was formed to enable the Coromandel community to continue to provide a quick response sea rescue capability for the local sea area. The existing response capability has been provided by the private vessel Waima, owned, skippered and crewed by Tom and Eliz Whittle. Waima is a private rescue vessel under the umbrella of Auckland Coastguard Inc (ACI). Tom and Eliz are both members of ACI. Tom and Eliz are unable to continue to provide the service and have stepped down from this commitment. They are both active members and supporters of CSR. Richard Hooker, Anglers Lodge Richard, we wish you and your team well and acknowledge the sterling work Tom and Eliz have done over the years for boating safety. Ed … AUCKLAND ASSET Dear Sir I was a long-time member of the old Auckland Harbour Board and its chairman for a few years until the Labour government kicked publicly elected harbour boards out. GOT OLD, UNLOVED MARITIME BOOKS GATHERING DUST? Professional Skipper is looking for unwanted books featuring all aspects of New Zealand's maritime history, from shipping to fi shing to the waterfront, to add to our growing in-house reference library. CONTACT: The Editor, Keith Ingram Professional Skipper, 4 Prince Regent Drive Half Moon Bay, Manukau City 2012 PHONE 09 533 4336 email: keith@skipper.co.nz 6 Professional Skipper January/February 2012 I get very concerned when I hear and read Sweney, McKeown and the like working to wreck the port and turn it into a public place. Rubbish! All the main assets such as Westhaven, the Viaduct Basin, Princes Wharf and the container terminal, which benefits us all, were developed by my board and its predecessors over 160 years. Long may POAL continue to grow the port, which gives so many benefits, including thousands of employment opportunities. The city of Auckland is on the Waitemata Harbour only because of its sheltered, all-weather port. The harbour and its port is the principal reason Auckland exists. Misinformed and unwarranted attacks on our port were the same in my day, but we fought this old problem with reason and information, as Tony Gibson is doing now. Where the hell is our port chairman? Maybe he is fighting the port's political battles. However, he has been invisible for some years, whoever he is. A couple of years ago Mike Lee came to my home, where he said he was unhappy with the POAL board and was I available for appointment. Nothing came of it, of course. Age was a factor but there were too many socialists like Judith Basset on the Auckland Regional Authority and the Auckland City Council who would not accept the likes of me. Without an efficient, well-managed port, Auckland would be seriously diminished. Harry L Julian snr, Auckland QUOTA SYSTEM Dear Sir With several others, I read Miranda O'Connell's article, Quota System Must Improve. All of us found it heavy going. Her point of "low engagement of individual recreational fishers in structured bodies" is quite correct, but I infer from it that she believes this to be a bad thing. In fact, it is a measure of Kiwis' sacred and time-honoured right to go fishing in the sea, without having to pay for a licence, permit, club membership etc and constrained only by the quite sensible and equitable rules on minimum legal sizes and bag limits. In this respect, the most worrying passage is "Key ... need ... ensure fishers understand the need for revenue collection." That means, "Pay to go fishing." The most serious issue is the suggestion that recreational fishing must come within the QMS. The only way that it can be done is to make recreational take a property right. That means something saleable. That means if a reccie wants to go fishing, he/she will have to buy quota for the catch, as well as comply with the revenue collection advocated above. I am astonished that Ms O'Connell, a committee member of the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council, is advocating a system that will leave amateur fishers wounded in the wallet. If I am wrong, someone please correct me. R Lea Clough MIRANDA O'CONNELL RESPONDS: I understand your concerns about wallet pain. However, today's environment of fisheries management demands rethinking the way recreational fishers are represented and contribute to fisheries management. Without a strong, professional and securely funded sector, regulation changes can slash bag limits at the stroke of a pen. Where is the equity and sacredness in this? And I am an advisor to the NZRFC, not a board member. Miranda O'Connell VIP.S61