New Boat Licenses

[PinHead]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8278204/boating-reforms-in-qld

Queensland boaties will be forced to undergo stricter night and electronic navigation training under new marine safety reforms.
Under the reforms, those seeking a boat licence would have to undertake the enhanced training from January 2012.
Furthermore, the number of estuaries where personal flotation devices must be worn would also be extended for small personal boats.
Marine Infrastructure Minister Craig Wallace said a new boating licence class would also be introduced in January 2013 for larger recreational craft.
"We've found that the larger boats, 12 metres and longer, are over-represented in serious marine incidents," he said in a statement.
The new licences would not affect current recreational marine driver and commercial master licence holders

[lethal098]

BOUT TIME!!!!

This change is well overdue.

Cheers Lee

[finga]

And the extra fees will be??

How many accidents have there been involving boats over 12m?? That's a big boat.

And look out. This will be the start of mandatory wearing of lifejackets.

[Noelm]

I reckon get used to wearing a life jacket in smaller boats (just like in NSW) it is only a matter of time before some buffoon comes up with the notion that everyone should wear a life jacket in boats under 5m or there abouts.

[PinHead]

I reckon the electronic navigation bit is a load of crap..how about making people learn to navigate properly first.

[PADDLES]

agreed, people are becoming a little too dependent on GPS

[Jarrah Jack]

In the building industry for example a lot of the push for increasing regulations comes from the trainers who stand to make money out of it. A guy I knew was a fencer and decided to write a manual on fencing. He then presented it to the government and kept on pushing until the govt said every fencer needs to do his course to get a license. It was pure bs.

I don't know if its the same in this case but there is always someone ready to make money from these things.

[robothefisho]

Won't make any difference. All the graduates still won't be able to drive a boat. They pay for their licence, they don't earn it. Electronic navigation? are they kidding. How about one on one training in a boat for a couple of hours and maybe an hour of theory. Not this crap of a day of theory and 5 minute on water demo of how they still can't drive a boat. I bet the big licencing place is pushing for this.

[PinHead]

how did you get your license robo ?

[robothefisho]

Through the same system I think is stupid, paid, sat in a classroom twiddling my thumbs for 6 hours and drove a boat for all of 2 minutes maybe? What are you trying to get at?

[Muddy Toes]

Unless you've run out of fuel and had no oars to row back in during your boat license test then i reakon you guys are streets ahead of me as skippers.

[Hornblower]

Well, I don't have a GPS in my little tinnie so I don't want to know about them! I navigate by using the channel markers, knowing my right of way and speed rules and using my nav and anchor lights when visibility drops. I do have a sounder though!!! Perhaps they are going to try to teach me that when it gets less then 1.6 feet (Yes I use feet being the old Dinosaur that I am) on the screen I may hit bottom! Oh, hang on a moment - I know that already, don't I?

No lets get real about how this is done by the govt. Some consultant was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out another way of regulating us fishos. The concept to me is plainly simple - over regulation means bigger dollars to the State Govt and maybe they can get some green votes (somehow - I don't really know!) to concrete their place in the next election.

Over regulating does not achieve a safer environment - what does is having an effective compliance body on the water - more water police to monitor the drink driving and lunatics blatantly breaking the navigation and boating rules and more fisheries officers to monitor those who break the rules with taking undersize fish or going over their bag limits. If I do something wrong on the road - I expect to get pinged not given a new rule and another fee and licence to obtain to justify forking out more money to our broke Govt - Exactly the same should be expected on the water - I know it is a pain being stopped or approached and having to show eskys and safety gear - but it keeps everyone honest and safe.

Okay - I am getting off my soap box now!!!!

Cheers,

Horny ;)

[finga]

I wonder if they're going to bring in you have to do a GPS course for your car license?
Makes about as much sense as making electronic navigation in a boat mandatory.

All the rules are there now. All that's required is someone to teach them to new perspective license holders.
The guys who say people are competent should be the ones who have to pull their socks up.
It is a joke at the moment and those of us that actually think a bit about their safety do extra training such as navigation and the use of radio's etc but the vast majority pay their money, sit down for some of the day, go for a bit of a river cruise to get their license and that's it. Woohoo.

[PADDLES]

i think that you need to know about GPS but you also need to know it's shortcomings as well, it's position is not always accurate, the background map is not necessarilly accurate either, but the basics of GPS operation should be part of boat licensing. likewise the basics of map and compass style navigation should be taught as well, identifying marks off a map by their flash sequence, identifying areas of shallow water and reef from a map. it's all stuff that's missing.

the way things are at the moment, a person with enough money can obtain a license by learning the absolute minimum and then legally operate a 60 foot riviera. no disrespect to any big riviera owners out there, in fact i'd love to be one but can't afford it, but how the fark can someone getting a license that is suited to the minimum requirements for controlling a less than 20 foot boat weighing less than 2 tonnes be ready to control something weighing more than 10 times that by doing a one day course and 10 minutes driving a 16 foot centre console at the license test. like lethal says, this stuff is well overdue and i'm with finga as well, i'd like to see the figures for big boat incidents. i bet there's a hell of a lot of big boat incidents that go unreported in the confines of the private property of marinas.

[Kero]

I reckon get used to wearing a life jacket in smaller boats (just like in NSW) it is only a matter of time before some buffoon comes up with the notion that everyone should wear a life jacket in boats under 5m or there abouts.


Tasmania is also compulsory, no matter how small the boat is!
It's only a matter of time before we see it here, given that the amount of boat traffic we have in QLD.

[goat boy]

I don't know if its the same in this case but there is always someone ready to make money from these things.

The act of obtaining a boat licence in itself is also pure BS and blatantly set out so that people are making money from it for doing stuff all. It isn't worth the piece of paper it's printed out on (and probably from a $49 Kmart jobby thing to boot).
Robo is spot on, and so are all the comments about electronic nav, goes to show how much these slack-jawed, policy making retards know about anything. All an attempt at raising more revenue under the banner of so called 'safety'...

[mal555]

Tasmania is also compulsory, no matter how small the boat is!

Indeed....compulsory up to 6 metres. There were initial cries of 'bloody bureaucracy', but over the last 5 years or so, most just wear the small inflatable yokes and don't think too much of it.

Remember also Tasmanians don't expect to have multiple, well equipped VMR stations rushing to their assistance any time soon, even if you did manage radio contact, you could realistically be in the water (12 deg. winter - 18 deg. summer - inland lakes about half the sea water temps) for many, many hours.

[mal555]

the way things are at the moment, a person with enough money can obtain a license by learning the absolute minimum and then legally operate a 60 foot riviera. no disrespect to any big riviera owners out there, in fact i'd love to be one but can't afford it, but how the fark can someone getting a license that is suited to the minimum requirements for controlling a less than 20 foot boat weighing less than 2 tonnes be ready to control something weighing more than 10 times that by doing a one day course and 10 minutes driving a 16 foot centre console at the license test. like lethal says, this stuff is well overdue and i'm with finga as well, i'd like to see the figures for big boat incidents. i bet there's a hell of a lot of big boat incidents that go unreported in the confines of the private property of marinas.

Afaik insurance companies are also applying pressure for big boat licensing upgrades, although qualified skippers are often used by the wealthier owners, accepted as ongoing associated costs.

I wonder how they determine 'serious incidents', surely not just berthing collisions, as most 60 + footers with twin drives and bow and stern thrusters or IPS and Zues drives are easier to berth than a runabout.
Maybe it's the damage from thoughtless wash?