Teenagers and Boats

[subzero]

Just a timely reminder with School hollidays etc coming up.
Today, for the second time in 3 months on our Roster we have had a distraugt Mother come looking for thier children whom they have become concerned for.
On both occassions, things turned out fine.... great...
On both occassions several comon factors were involved that were quite frankly very worrying.

1 The parents had loaned their own children thier own boat
2 The parents did not know adequate vessel details and could not locate details about registration etc without valuable wasted time.
3 Descriptions of their own vessels were extremely vague and they were not sure what safety gear was on the boat with their children
4 Unknown how many people or who went out on the boat with their child
5 Unknown area the boat would be heading to
6 Unknown what type of radio was on board, wether the kids would have it switched on, what channel it would be set to. (In both cases they had a radio's but the parents never used them so consequently their own children never learnt to use them)
7 Very vague or unknown, estimated return time...

When asked experience level, parents on both occassions quickly stated very INEXPERIENCED.

Some key things the teens do wrong?
1 They never logged on although they parked right out the front of the unit
2 They never checked the forcast
3 They never left a trip plan or details with ANY family member in the event of problems
4 They relied on cell phone coverage for comunications

Conclusion
Log ons cost nothing... Why dont people do it?

Why do SOME parents trust teens, who they describe as inexperienced, to use their vessels without ASKING that they follow MINIMUM safety measures appropriate to that level of experience?

Why do these same people allow their teens to take out the boat on the Bay when the Greater Brisbane area INCLUDING the bay is being lashed by severe PREDICTED weather and storms?

How come those very same parents are prepared to loan the boat to the kids, without even being sure that essentials such as life jackets, flares etc are on board, and then when under stress cant describe their own boat or reg no?

Why is it that the parents can not even give a rough idea as to the destination of their own kids or their planed return time?

MY THOUGHTS!!!!
If parents or mature adults are NOT prepared to look after themselves and do the right thing, fine, but for heavens sake, at least look after and teach the young ones to do the right thing.
We dont let our kids loose in the family car with no approriate training, brakes, wipers, bald tires etc... strange where we can allow the young ones to boat into an unknown area, no charts, lights, vessel details, safety gear, storm conditions etc in a boat that broke down last week apparently with steering problems... cant get out and walk if you have problems like a car..

Thats my 2cents worth, sit the kids down the next time you loan your boat and at the least, find out whats going on!!!!!
Safe Boating
Regards Lloyd

[propdinger]

about the login's i have mates that dont know how to login (i know they should do a course but you try and tell them that ,....anyway) and so they will not login as they think they will look like fools if they say the wrong things..
unfortunatly if there is a problem then they wont know what to do either as they only use there radios for calling eachother..



maybe there should be a sign of some sort to help people at the ramp on procedure might help some people too busy(lazy) to do a course


my 2 cents worth to the login part
i always tell a family member where we are going and when we should be home aswell but they seem to always ring my mobile while i got a fish on ::)


cheers
jeff

[Justme]

Gday Jeff
Aren't you lucky to be able to fish where the mobile phone works. (Tongue in cheek)
Telstra tells you fellas that us bushies get the same service as you do.
Don't believe a word of it mate.
Cheers Larry

[searaider]

subzero Lloyd ,
It makes you wonder what the parents were thinking lending the boat to the kids in the first place .
Hopefully there wont be a next time ( wishfull thinking ) , but if there is maybe you should advise the parents that the incident has to be reported to the water police . >:(
MAYBE THAT WOULD PUT THE WIND UP THEM & MAKE THEM MORE RESPONSABLE IN THE FUTURE . :o
It would be interesting to know if , the parents , let alone the kids had a Boat Lisence ???
To your self & all the other guys at Vic Point VMC
Well done [smiley=2thumbsup.gif]

Peter
Searaider 2

[bungie]

If the kids had a licence then surely they would know to have safety gear, log on, etc. So when the $hit does hit the fan, no insurance as the driver has no qualifications

[subzero]

Gidday Propdinger, each and every one of us regardless of experience NOW at one time didnt know how to log on.

NO member of any organisation such as ours be it, VMR, Coastguard, RCP or whatever will ever hold a person up to ridicule for attemting to do the right thing. (I will not say the reverse is true for those that dont log on, and it is found that they are totally ill prepared and have gotten in to trouble as a result... we will obviously go "Bloody Clown" amongst ourselves especially if they risked others and not just themselves.. but we still wont give the boatie a hard time about it as at the end of the day we HOPE that the next time he go'es out he will get it right)

You can log on by several methods, sliding a trip card under the door of your local rescue unit (these can be obtained from local rescue groups and are re-usable) if when you leave it is unattended, log on by radio, telephone, or at the window of the unit itself. (This is the most comon method).
If you are still not comfortable with the above options, fill in a trip card, give it to your mate, your boss, your missus or your kids... At least that way someone will know what is going on and someone will be looking out for you!!! This option is EXTREMELY usefull in the event of mid-week or night time excursions as Volunteers will be at home tucked up in bed preparing for their normal working jobs.... however, if the person you have left your details with becomes concerned ALL UNITS can be reached after hours to come looking for you if need be.

My concern is more for the young ones hitting the water on thier own, many for the first time out with thier mates... Mum and Dad has loaned the kids the boat.... and let them head off with no real training in the minimum what should be MANDATORY things

Where are they going?
When will they be back?
Have they checked the weather?
Is the boat adequately prepared?
Do the persons on board Know how to use the equipment on the vessel, such as the Radio, Gps, Epirb, Flares or even how to put a life jacket on....

Kids like to have a hoon in cars, more so in Dads boat splashing through the waves in the boat being egged on by their mates... hell, I am 47, still enjoy a bit of a play myself, BUT, I have been trained others have a great deal of experience...
I think many parents tend to think, Jesus, I have been out with the boy 50 times, never had a problem, he knows what he is doing... Yea right
Ask yourself, who drove the boat, who navigated the area, who checked the equipment, fuel, weather and so on.... probably dad...
Next time you are on the water with the kids, MAKE THEM THE MASTER OF THE VESSEL from start to finish... No input from you, see how they get on... then when they least expect it, drop a scenario on them, the motor wont start, its getting dark what are you going to do? can they find their way back in the dark?
Boating/Fishing are the most pleasurable experiences one can enjoy (Barring one other activity ;) ), dont be one of the parents that within a week of the end of school year somewhere in Australia find themselves needlessly organising a funeral for one or more of their loved ones that has needlessly died

Thats my 4 cents worth now, thanks for taking the time to reply to this topic, I am hoping to provoke a little bit of a reaction to this as it is very important that we dont get to complacent when it comes to our kids and the water
Cheers Lloyd

[subzero]

Gidday Pete, sometimes you can get a bit frustrated and feel like contacting Water Police about a minoritys actions while on water, but we dont really want to get involved in creating trouble for or with boaties... otherwise they wont log on the next time after learning from their mistakes... we dont really want to become an extra arm of the fisheries, water police or any one else... People have to feel comfortable coming up to us, asking for advice, or getting shown how to opperate the radios... I have gotten into trouble on this site before for stating I dont personally give a fat rats ar#e wether people have a VHF license or not, just that they know how to use it if they need to, I will show anyone who comes to the base how to use the radio, I will tell them they need a license, I wont ask if they have one.... NOT MY JOB!!!!! (I would of course prefer they did get a license though). In the event of overdue vessels etc, we are OBLIGATED to contact Water Police... They are the controlling Authority, they will determine the level of response by the information aquired initially by us... And yes, they may give someone a burst, and they frequently do, especially if the activate other rescue units and the Rescue choppers, (Rescue 500, minimum $3,500-00 per hour out of the police budget, they get really cranky at this level). Rescue units MUST report these instances to Police after we have attempted to make initial contact... We can not delay this to long and is dependant on many factors, weather, experience, health, approaching darkness, area going to or last reported and so on... we leave it to long and something has happened and we are in the SHITE as individuals... yep liable to prosecution for not doing something sooner

Bungie, in both instances, the kids or MASTERS of the vessel had newly aquired licenses... As it turned out the boats were both equiped to meet the MINIMUM legal requirements, (Just the parents werent sure how many, if any lifejackets were on board and adequate for the unknown number of persons on those vessels)... The boats were NOT adequate for the conditions they were out in, one of the two who finaly made their way back in the dark were not equipped for night navigation with no night experience... insurance, dont need it if you are dead, the parents might need it to bury the kids though

Recreational Ship Masters License... an absolute joke in Qld ... if a car license was issued under the same criteria you would make sure you had a spare tyre, lights on the car only if you were going to drive at night, do a u turn in an open paddock, pick up your mate from within a mitre or two of the kerb, do a figure of 8 in another open paddock and park the car and so on.... Now the new licensing criteria, thats a different story, one extreme to the other... check this out... http://www.msq.qld.gov.au/qt/msq.nsf/index/boatsafe
If it doesnt put people off, fantastic, if its made to hard though, then they had better get some enforcement officers out there as no one will bother to get one Rock and a hard place
Cheers Lloyd

[Dr_Dan]

I must admit, since my old man wasn't really into boating, learning the ropes was up to me. Got my first boat at 16, and after getting my licence, was pretty much let loose (with dad on board, needed him to drive the car). All of my learning to that point had been from what i've read, and most importantly COMMON SENSE! As subzero said, the best way to learn is to make them in charge. Did my learning in the rivers and creeks around cairns, but wasn't long before i was heading to some of the closer inshore grounds.
I think it depends a lot on how much anybody thinks when they are going out in a boat. I mean, a lot of my mates and I were real careful when we were out on our boats (we loved those boats. WOuld rather something happen to us than our toys!), and you'd see older guys, who had some money to get larger, faster boats (midlife crisis), never been boating, heading straight offshore with no idea at all.

Anyhow, if my folks hadn't given me a little bit of freedom with regards to boating, wouldn't have learnt anything.

One lethal additive that wasnt in the comments, when things really start to get dangerous, teens, boats, and grog! NOT A GOOD COMBINATION!

[subzero]

Gidday Dr_Dan
from what I have seen the young ones tend to be NORMALLY pretty good with the grog... the floating gin palaces are the ones, like to run aground etc... mid lifers like a few too... but the young ones are generally pretty good... did have 2 boys and 2 girls about 16 in a 12 ft tinny at night we had to bring back from Blakeslys in a storm that were obviously mullocked about 3 years ago, but cant really remember anything booze related since then with young ones

I do suspect that the young ones from 3 rosters back didnt find themselves down at Tipplers Resort area by accident when they had told their parents that they were turning left at the mouth of the Logan (North) and instead turned Right (South) and then became overdue with their parents by 2 hours.... and ran into darkness...
little sh#*s.. ::)

[bignick]

It's not an altogether bad thing to get teenagers into boating and fishing. As long as they are taught the correct safety procedures for boating and given a little bit of help along the way, all should be well as long as they stay within the limitations of their skills, knowledge and vessel. Boating and fishing has got to be a far better passtime than listening to American Gangster Rap, wearing your cap backwards and just generally hanging around with nothing to do and getting into all sorts of trouble.

Cheers,
BIGNICK.

[Sportfish_5]

Spot on there Nick. As a young bloke growing up my old man bought me my own 2nd hand 12 ft tinnie with a 7.5 merc that I would spend every available moment fishing in when we stayed down at Loders Creek C/ Park in the late 70s early eighties. As with cars and bikes etc it is up to the individual to ensure they have enough knowledge (theoretical and practical) to operate it. There was plenty of other young blokes back then on the Gold Coast (probably on this site now) who would have learnt the ropes in a similar way. I remember them well because the barstards all had 25hp engines and used to leave me behind in their wake 8) 8) 8)

Ahh - Life was much less complicated then ----- I think ;)

Cheers

Greg

[devocean]

I am a teacher therefore I am around teeeagers all the time. This also means living in a small town that my crab pots are the prize catch of any young teenager where I live. I also know that alot of parents dont give enough thought as to what there kids are doing on the water. But we were all young once I guess and I will just keep making crab pots

[Mick]

The teenagers arn't steeling ya pots mate, it is me! Hahha!

[Maverick79]

All I can say on this is watch out for them down on the Nerang