NSW boating blitz finds safety, life jacket shortfalls

Almost 400 infringements and more than 300 official cautions were handed out over the three days, with the main reason behind why boaters were falling foul of the law relating to safety gear that was either not on the vessel, out of date, or in the case of life jackets, not being worn.

Police in the northern part of NSW checked more than 1300 vessels, including around 300 jet skis across locations including Tweed River, Forster, Port Stephens and Lake Macquarie.

Of the 53 penalty notices and 76 cautions handed out, police checks also noticed an alarming number of life jackets that had not been serviced, unregistered boats, and expired EPIRBS and flares.

In Sydney, more than 2200 checks were carried out mainly around the Georges River, Hawkesbury and Nepean River regions, with 630 of those relating to jet skis.

In all, 303 penalty notices were handed out, with 76 cautions, mainly relating to speeding boats and jet skis, as well as children aged under 12 not wearing life jackets, and unregistered vessels.

In southern NSW, police checks were concentrated on the busy Lake Conjola, St Georges Basin, Tuross, Batemans Bay, Jervis Bay and Murray River regions.

Of the 900 vessels checked, around 60 were jet skis. Over the weekend, 43 infringement notices and 40 cautions were handed out for offences as simple as not having any life jackets on board.

Police had warned last week that they would adopt zero tolerance to any boating infringements as thousands of boaters across the state flocked to the water.

“The October long weekend marks the start of the summer boating season. It is an opportunity for boaties to hit the waterways and make sure they have the appropriate equipment on board,” NSW Maritime operations and compliance general manager Chris Doolin said.

“While a good number of people have continued to boat through the winter months, particularly with COVID-19 keeping people close to home, there is always a group of boaters who pack their vessels away in April and head out for the first time in October.

“We want to make sure they are doing this safely and following the relevant boating laws which exist to keep us all safe while on the water.”

He urged boaters to check they were carrying, maintaining and checking equipment such as EPIRBs, flares and torches, and ensuring that inflatable lifejackets were serviced either within the last 12 months or according to manufacturer’s requirements.