New warning label for small boats proposed

Standards Australia has released a draft version of the Small craft, Part 1: General requirements for power boats that will set down the rules by which new boats up to 35 metres in length, and sold here, will be built and labelled.

One of the changes proposed is to add a new warning label for boats up to 6.0 metres in length that are well suited to protected waters such as lakes, rivers and estuaries, but may occasionally venture offshore.

The label will advise owners to reduce the number of people onboard if they expect to encounter bad weather, or if they intend heading offshore, to ensure it has enough flotation to handle the conditions safely.

The standard review committee did consider whether the open waters requirement was even needed for smaller boats, but decided to keep it in the draft proposal all the same.

“The [standards review] committee decided to retain the option for the supplier to provide an open waters maximum persons capacity on the capacity plate for boats under 6.0m in length,” it said. 

“However, it noted that reducing the number of persons on board would not, by itself, be adequate to manage all of the additional hazards potentially faced when boating in open waters. 

“Although beyond the scope of this standard, the committee noted that understanding sea conditions and weather forecasts, and acting accordingly, were essential elements of boating safely in open waters,’ it said.

If approved, the new Australian Standard will also recognise the advances in outboard engine development, with four-stroke engines now much lighter than the numbers used for the current standard set in 2006 and based on American Boat and Yacht Council data.

The proposed standard will also take into account the heavier weight of batteries as a boat’s electrical demand rises in parallel with its engine size.

Another important clarification that the proposed standard will introduce is that rather than rate a boat’s capacity by the number of people onboard, it will introduce the concept of a “total persons mass” rather than relying on an average 80kg per adult passenger.

The new proposed standard also keeps the requirement for basic flotation for boats measuring less than 6.0 metres – where at least some portion of the hull remains above the water when the boat is swamped – rather than level flotation.

On-water safety groups, including the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, say that boaters have a much higher chance of survival if a boat with level flotation is swamped compared with a boat using only basic flotation.

Standards Australia will take feedback on the draft standard until April 30, 2021. However, anyone wanting to access the draft standard must be registered with Standards Australia to access the document and comment on it.