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Life jackets must be worn at all times while on a boat, in new state regulations


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This has already come up in the shoutbox but for further reading I've included the below originally from The Advertiser website. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/life-jackets-must-be-worn-at-all-times-while-on-a-boat-in-new-state-regulations/news-story/c959ef073fab6a1c188c93be20ce6b70

 

DRIVERS and passengers of small boats have to wear life jackets at all times as part of a State Government bid to improve safety on the water.

Transport Minister Stephen Mullighan will today announce new regulations that make wearing life jackets mandatory for anyone on board a motorised boat shorter than 4.8m.


The regulations come into effect today, but water police will not start dishing out $160 fines until after a 12-month education campaign.

Previously, boaties did not have to wear life jackets but had to ensure there were enough on board for every passenger.

Mr Mullighan will also today announce a “Old4New life jacket upgrade” to give $20 vouchers in exchange for the handover of old, unsuitable, obsolete or damaged life jackets, with a limit of two vouchers per person.

The new laws also state that:

ON boats between 4.8m and 12m in length, children aged 12 or younger must wear a lifejacket at all times when on an open area of a vessel.

ADULTS on these larger boats must wear a lifejacket when on the open deck during times of heightened risk such as when alone, at night, when visibility is poor and when the boat is disabled.

PADDLEBOARDERS (including those on stand-up paddleboards) and surf skiers will also be required to wear life jackets when more than 400m from shore.

PASSENGERS must wear a lifejacket if and when directed by the operator of a 4.8m to 12m vessel.

“The new laws aim to reduce the chance of drownings, after 168 drownings in South Australia over the past decade, with approximately one fifth involving boating and watercraft activities,” Mr Mullighan said.


“Too many people lose their lives unnecessarily because they don’t wear life jackets and, while we don’t want to stop people enjoying themselves, we want to make sure that we’re doing what we can to reduce serious injuries and deaths out on the water.

“Already boaties are required to have enough life jackets for everyone. These new rules will make it clearer when people should be wearing them and will bring South Australia into line with other states such as Victoria and Queensland.”

There will be a maximum fine of $1250, which can be imposed by courts if the matter is serious enough to end in a court case.


The new law will also require some boat users to upgrade the quality of life jackets. The voucher system is designed to encourage boaties to replace out-of-date or inadequate jackets.

Boating Industry Association chief executive Howard Glenn welcomed the changes, which he said would improve the stock of life jackets on boats.

But he said the boating community would closely monitor the effects of the changes during the 12-month grace period.

RecFish SA executive officer Danny Simpson welcomed the grace period because significant education was needed to meet the new regulations.

“RecFish SA is supportive of all practical approaches to make boating safer for recreational fishers and their families,” he said.

“The approach being proposed to educate rather than prosecute in the first year of the transition is sensible.

“The Old4New life jacket program is an excellent approach. It means that recreational fishers and other boaters will receive financial support for upgrading old and obsolete equipment and will continue to safely enjoy their favourite pastime.”

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The wearing of life jackets has been in Tasmania for several years now and there's to be an upgrade of them in 2020.. You can buy them now and they're quite flat and are very light, a lot has changed with the design of them from what they used to be.. great investment and  a must in small open boats in my opinion..

http://www.mast.tas.gov.au/recreational/boating/life-jackets/

cheers

Adrian

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I don't mind either way but am really fed up with this "nanny" state. Make new laws so they can introduce more fines.

I believe the boat length will go on what the rego papers say but my makers length and the rego length are different, 4.55 or 4.69? I know I am under but what about others??????

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Sleeping overnight.
This is where it might start getting ludicrous with the "at anchor" business.
Given this definition, it would appear "anchoring" is a subset of "mooring"...
 
moor means to make fast to the shore, a buoy, a jetty or a wharf or to anchor
 
So...
Tied up to a mooring buoy in a bay - no probs.
Anchored in the same bay (even with two anchors for arguments sake, bow and stern) - have to wear a lifejacket all night.
??
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2 hours ago, kon said:
Sleeping overnight.
This is where it might start getting ludicrous with the "at anchor" business.
Given this definition, it would appear "anchoring" is a subset of "mooring"...
 
moor means to make fast to the shore, a buoy, a jetty or a wharf or to anchor
 
So...
Tied up to a mooring buoy in a bay - no probs.
Anchored in the same bay (even with two anchors for arguments sake, bow and stern) - have to wear a lifejacket all night.
??

im pretty sure i read somewhere u only need to wear a pdf  when on open deck. so if sleeping in cabin i suppose its alright??

 

stupid rules but time will tell i guess☺

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Correct.
But technically any dinner prep or refreshments on deck after sunset = lifejacket on.
Even more ludicrously - a leak over the side in the wee hours [see what I did there? ;) ] = lifejacket on.
 
The original proposal put up for public consultation only had "under way" - some bureaucrat idiot, for whatever reason, sneaked in "at anchor" on top of that.
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6 minutes ago, kon said:
Correct.
But technically any dinner prep or refreshments on deck after sunset = lifejacket on.
Even more ludicrously - a leak over the side in the wee hours [see what I did there? ;) ] = lifejacket on.
 
The original proposal put up for public consultation only had "under way" - some bureaucrat idiot, for whatever reason, sneaked in "at anchor" on top of that.

lol i wouldnt be worried about a leak over the side in the WEE hours. thats easy😂😂 but i can imagine taking a number 2 would be a  messy nightmare😅😅. whoever suggested on ANCHOR is a dead on #ANKER😊

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I'm all for safety regulations and enforcement where the data supports it, but it does not in this case.  Many more die from hitting their head falling or from head injuries in car accidents, but we don't see them bringing in helmets.  The very low numbers of deaths here in SA are generally the result of people putting themselves at heightened risk, this scenario is already covered with the current guidelines and you would think, common sense.  Sorry about the guy in the article who lost his mate, but his description of the circumstances, ie pulling craypots, close to rocks, with big swells coming through, (was this the one at Beachport where it was blowing 20+knots onshore pulling a stuck pot side on to big swells and the guy who drowned had a broken collarbone?)  Come on, this is the definition of heightened risk and the skippers responsibility to take precautionary action at minimum.   By the sounds of it, the precautionary action should have been to stay onshore.

But this is typical these days, rational processing and use of data to make rational decisions has been educated out of the system.

Saying that, this change won't effect me at all

Cheers
Rod

This data is old, I found a 2016 graph that looked the same but included some race based data so I used this older one.  It's just to show my point about falls etc

deaths.JPG.287213bceea3a3e687bd701320fe2852.JPG

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