Boat Laws

It was touched on during another thread, although not the topic of the thread, laws in regard to boating. And anomalies or stupidities that you think are related to your laws. I would be interested to see the diversity.

Western Australia. At the moment you do not need a licence to drive a boat of any size. This is a highly taxed country and the only reason this is so is because there hasn't been enough boaters to boost the government coffers enough to make a profit margin on the expense of setting it up.

However boating has increased in popularity and the government under the pretence of safety has declared that from April 2008 anybody driving a power boat over 4.5Kw (6HP) must have an RST (Recreational Skippers Ticket)

This is a one off ticket that is supposed to last you a lifetime. But my guess is that will change and it will soon be a renewable licence annually like our car drivers licence.

This does not allow a boat owner to use their boat for money. ie I could not transport someone from A to B and get paid for it because I would then need a professional skippers ticket which is very expensive because the government wants more money.

There is no restriction on the size of boat as long as you are not running it for money.

Anomalies. Our laws do not require you to carry lifejackets if you are in protected waters ie a river, estuary or harbour. So if you are a non swimmer how far you can swim if the boat sinks, is determined by the depth of the water.

It doesn't matter how big your boat is ie sailing boat, if it doesn't have a motor you don't need a licence.

You don't need a ticket if the motor on your boat is under 6HP so you can, to avoid paying for a licence stick a 5HP motor on a large dingy and get blown out to sea because it wasn't powerfull enough to come in against an offshore wind.

If you are more than 2 nautical miles out to sea you need to carry an EPIRB. But for some reason there is a 14 mile stretch of coastline along our city region where you can go out 12.3 miles without an EPIRB.

You only need to carry a marine radio if you are more than 5 miles out to sea. Any closer than 5 miles I guess you just holler, "Come and fkn get me!"

You only need to carry a fire extinguisher if you have an inboard engine.

Poida

 

You mean you can have a bloody big chip fryer but as long as you only have several outboards you don't need a fire extinguisher! Obviously trainin is a non requirement too! And they reckon the requirement for a drivers licence over 6bhp is for Safety Reasons! Good job you didn't post this yesterday (1st April - all fools day!) Poida

So chuck a bucket of water over the fryer!!! well solves the insurance problem eh!

 

Canada's pretty sane on our laws... most of them are simply what mariners would call common sense.
The equipment regs go by boat size- 12 m LOA is an important threshold. Unpowered craft such as canoes have much less stringent requirements than power or sail boats. http://www.tc.gc.ca/BoatingSafety/menu.htm has the lists. Some complain that the requirements are onerous, but since you can get the complete kit of gear for $40 at Canadian Tire (it's about the size of a large purse), I think it's pretty reasonable.
Helmsman licences (aka the Pleasure Craft Operator Card) will be in full effect in 2009; they've been phased in over ten years, starting with the boats (PWCs and smaller powerboats) that had the worst incident statistics at the time. They are permanent and the cost is quite small (paid to an independent training organization such as the Canadian Power & Sail Squadron, not to the government). The written test is multiple choice, testing your knowledge of navigation markers, right-of-way regs, etc. You don't need it for rental boats if you get a safety and navigation orientation from the attendant, and you don't need it for unpowered craft (this covers canoes and dinghies, but not sailboats with an auxiliary engine). I think they figure that if you can get a sailboat off the dock and underway with no engine, you know enough about sailing to get by.
Overall I think Canada's approach to the matter is pretty good and so far there have been few hiccups. The cops have taken a policy of politely informing captains that they are missing safety gear, then allowing them to prove a few days later that they've fixed the problem. The only offences that they have no tolerance on are liquor and dangerous operation, both of which are pretty rare.

 

Sorry Walruss, I didn't want to over state all of the requirements because of the length of the post, but if you have cooking facilities on board you also need a fire extinguisher. I was referring mainly to the fuel tank of an outboard is carried in the boat, for the price of a fire extinguisher why not make it compulsory for all boats?

Marshmat, phasing the helsman's cert. over ten years, what's the rush?

 

Will/Does this apply to cruisers coming in on foriegn flagged sailboats? For Canada and Australia that is.

 

In Canada, the PCO card only applies to foreigners if (a) you are sailing in Canadian waters for more than 45 days, or (b) you take command of a Canadian-registered vessel (ie. a chartered boat) while you're here.
If you know the rules of navigation, can read a chart and can tell the difference between a North and an East cardinal buoy, you can write the test and get your card in half an hour, and it is good for life.
As to why it's taking a decade to phase in, the gov't figured it would be better for the private organizations that do the tests, to have a slow stream of people over a few years, than a big surge all at once. The categories that had the worst incident statistics were the first- PWCs, small runabouts and teenagers. More experienced captains driving larger boats came later.

 

I think most countries have mostly sensible martime laws for yotties (? ?) having said that you'll find that most of these rules are written by people who have little or no knowledge of boats or even water (except in their whisky - horrible habit, should never drink water, fish fcuk in it!) so there's a good chance some may be a little out! the fact that politicians these days seem to only make laws that get them votes (non democracies/dictatorships don't have yotties, they may escape) doesn't help of course!

 

Hmmm we have wabbit among us now... welcome back Bergalia.

 

Aye a wee scotch wabbit who is no doubt frequently pis er happy! Great to hear from you again me awld loon, vit like?

 

Slap me withers, Walrus - seems you've been taking a course in a little known Urdu dialect in my absence. But I my little know Urdu dialectic neighbour believes you're asking after my health.
Great my best chum. Been fairly busy sailing the latest in 'Snafu' lines. Trip out across the wet to New Zealand with wife and two daughters - all three swathed in life-jackets, grim faced, 'hail Mary-ing' and clutching the rails only breaking off their genuflections to ask "Shall we launch the dinghy now dad ?" Pah, them of little faith.
(I know, I know - never ship women aboard...but does one count a wife and teenage daughters as 'women' ?)
All in all a smooth trip, dry and snug. Great trout fishing in NZ.
Now working on an 'unsinkable - uncapsizable - circumnavigational' version' under 20 foot long. Plans, pics and report in due course, hopefully before the global Armagedon...
PS the effect on the Australian East Coast of the recent Solomon Islands tsunami saw the tide rise by three inches. Effect on city folks, us rural dwellers gather, was wide spread panic. Tee hee hee...

 

Might sound only 3 inches to you Bergalia but to me that's a whole 75mm.