Lifejacket police patrolling launching ramps: Update

UPDATED: There's been a lot of heated discussion among passionate Victorian trailerboaters in respect of the lifejacket laws and how they apply when launching and retrieving your boat alone.

There have been reports of anglers at busy coastal ports being sprung for not wearing a lifejacket when taking their boat on and off the trailer.

The stories go that boaters have removed their lifejacket to drive the car back down the ramp only to be busted when they’ve then reboarded their craft to drive it on the trailer with out said lifejacket.

If you can believe the stories, the reverse has also occurred with individuals caught when driving their boat off the trailer to a pontoon or wharf without a lifejacket.

We are all for boating safety, and so is Maritime Safety Victoria's (MSV), which dispatched some 25 Boating Safety Officers to popular Vic boat ramps over the summer months to educate and advise on this very matter.

The MSV's Boating Safety eNEWs February 2016 sought to clarify the launch-and-retrieve lifejacket laws in Vic, which revolve around the term: heightened risk.

The Marine Safety Regulations r.101(4)(b) define the heightened risk of solo boating as:

"the vessel is being operated by a person who is the only person on board the vessel"

MSV says there’s been a bit of discussion about how "heightened risk" rules apply to boaties who are launching and retrieving.

However, MSV denies any kind of policing blitz on this issue or dishing out of fines.

"We are all about education and are not revenue driven," said Lisa Taylor, the Manager of Recreational Boating Safety at MSV. "I spoke with my team and no-one has handed out a fine."

Here’s what MSV has to say about "heightened risk at the ramp" and "what you need to know about launching and retrieving alone"…

Fact is, lifejackets save lives. In 70 per cent of boating fatalities in Victoria, the deceased was not wearing a lifejacket.

As MSV made clear to us, education about boating safety and wearing lifejackets doesn’t need to include up-front fines. MSV says its been talking with boaters at the ramps to create a better understanding about the lifejacket laws during launch and retrieval.

So to answer the question: yes, you can get pinged when launching at the boat ramp alone?

If there's an incident of some kind during launching and retrieving
alone and you're not wearing a lifejacket then expect that to be a
factor in the inquiry. One can’t argue with the letter of the law.

Along with MSV, Water Police have also been enforcing the lifejacket laws in Victoria this summer. Thankfully, MSV has seen the sense rather than dollars in working with boaters rather than fining them.

For all this, however, this writer is still pondering how the boat ramp is a place of heightened risk. There is risk in everything, but in 40 years of boating I'm yet to come anywhere even close to death at the launching ramp (cranking the boat the last few metres with the trailer winch excepted).

Further reading at Lifejacket Laws in Victoria.