Professional Skipper Magazine from VIP Publications

LETTERS CONTINUED… to eliminate trucking and under-reporting of bird and mammal mortalities. Other bad practices: starving, beating, buggering and under-paying crew may well continue off camera, and some effort may well be devoted to ways and means of doing undetectable dumping. It would certainly be a help to human observers, particularly if only one is on board. I explained it during an informal gathering at the last Conference, and some fishermen were outraged at the idea. We can't win them all. R Lea Clough, Ohoka HARBOURMASTER SHAME Dear Sir I am a commercial skipper operating out of Tryphena harbour on Great Barrier taking out up to twelve passengers at a time on my 11.64m boat Riviera. Tryphena wharf is currently undergoing a re-build, limiting access for smaller operators like myself so the ramp at Puriri Bay has been seeing a bit more action while works go on at the main wharf. A few weeks ago someone decided to install poles alongside the Puriri Bay ramp, so there were works in progress impeding access to both facilities. Great! The thing is, many of the poles weren't secure, those alongside the ramp were a metre and a half away from it, more were erected above the high water mark, and approximately 15 Just as I was wondering 'where do I go now', the poles miraculously disappeared. The project is now on hold and the budget so far is rumoured to have cost $60,000. As a commercial operator I feel let down by the Harbourmasters office for not getting involved sooner and overseeing the operation. Simply hanging up with a "not my problem" attitude and fobbing off the safety concerns of a commercial operator is not acceptable. In conclusion: none of the vessels moored in the immediate area were contacted regarding the installation of poles. Existing commercial operators who could have given professional advice were not considered, and the safety concerns of commercial operators and their customers were ignored. Nothing useful has been achieved. All this at a time of austerity, Auckland Council should be ashamed. What a load of bollocks! Kim Watts, Great Barrier PADDLEBOARDERS AND KAYAKERS Dear Sir I am writing in response to Mike Pigneguy's letter headed 'Accident Waiting to Happen', on page 6, July/Aug 2012 New Zealand Professional Skipper. In the last 10 years I have done well over 100 commercial trips cubic metres of metal had been dumped at the low tide end of the ramp. This pretty much made the Puriri Bay ramp unusable except on the very top of a high tide. A quick meeting with the community board member who instigated the project and the project manager, revealed that a shortfall in budget was the cause of the problems and that the contractor had walked off the job. I was threatened that if I went public I could, "expect no improvements to be made". Great outlook for the livelihood of a commercial skipper. They also declined to provide details of the engineers who designed it or to provide costs so far. Although the community board member who undertook the project acknowledged some responsibility for the shortfalls, he pointed out that the Auckland Harbourmaster's office had signed off the plans. He claimed he relied on their advice. Upon contacting Auckland Harbourmaster's office, I was informed that their only stipulations were that it was not to be a hazard to navigation and fit for purpose for the vessels intended to use it. I pointed out that the work didn't meet either of these requirements and asked for signs to warn of the now, shallow draft, and the unsecured poles there. Their response was… to very rudely hang up!!! Is this the kind of professional behaviour to expect from our governing bodies? 6 Professional Skipper September/October 2012 on the Auckland harbour and its rivers and estuaries. I have seen for myself the increasing problems of paddleboarders and kayak canoes. These craft are extremely hard to spot in choppy seas, or even in calm conditions. I am not one to like too much regulation but this is one lot of boating that has to be looked in to. I have seen some kayaks with an orange flag on a two metre pole, and they had been orange themselves, but are still not good at dusk or evening to spot. We have so many ferries and private launches that cruise at 24 plus knots. Cruising at these speeds in shipping channels makes it very hard to take evasive action if needed, to miss a paddleboarder or kayak. This is an all year round problem, but worst in summer with more boats on the water. These people should keep well away from our main shipping channels, but this then makes it hard for them to cross the harbour to such islands as Rangitoto and Motutapu. So they are gambling with their lives. My solution to try and improve this situation, to help stop an accident, keep our skippers out of court, and the paddle boarders and kayakers out of a coffin, is for Maritime New Zealand to make it compulsory for these boaties to wear orange life jackets and have an orange flag on a two metre pole. And if out in the evening, to have a bright laser light on this pole. A flashing laser light for preference. The ones to best police this, are the boating clubs, Coast Guard, and the maritime Police. I do not want to dampen the fun these people seem to have. It is no fun if one loses their life or one of our skippers loses their ticket hitting one of these, plus all the drama that everyone involved in such an accident would have to go through. I invite other Professional Skipper readers to write in your views to the Editor, which I hope could help to get something positive done about this problem. We all need to help make our waterways safe for all of us to use and enjoy. Thank you Mike Pigneguy, for giving me the inspiration to answer your letter. I will be waiting in anticipation for other readers' responses. TITANIC REPLICA Dear Sir John Hunter, Papakura It will be interesting to see if the billionaire Palmer builds the replica of the RMS Olympic or if it is its sister ship RMS Titanic

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