‘Frightening’ upsurge in boating mishaps

Press, 4 January 1978, Page 6

‘Frightening’ upsurge in boating mishaps

An apparent upsurge in boating mishaps during the last week was very, very frightening, said a delegate to the Canterbury advisory committee of the Water Safety Council, Mr W. J. Baguley, yesterday.

“Too many boat-owners are trying to put their boats into situations which the boat cannot handle,” he said. “It is usually the person who Jets the boat down.” Many were over-confident. ‘‘The way things are at the moment, a person buys a boat and becomes an instant seaman,” Mr Baguley said. Boat-owners had to come to terms with the sea and follow common-sense rules, he said. They should let

i people on shore know their destination and when they were expected to arrive; make sure they had sufficient lifesaving gear on board; and make sure that a craft was properly equipped with alternative methods of propulIsion and a suitable anchor with sufficient anchor line. I "Becoming weather-wise is | extremely important,” said Mr Baguley. “If people tried I to become more weather-wise and used common sense, they would not be likely to venture out to sea in adverse conditions.”

People did foolhardy things in favourable conditions. “You can go down to Lyttelton any fine day and see children all over the boat,” he said. “Boat-owners set out with

people perched all over the boat, with no life-jackets and with no idea of the rules of sailing.” But in spite of a spate of recent boating mishaps, Mr Baguley, who is also secretary of the Sumner Lifeboat Institution, said that the lifeboat was receiving fewer calls than previously. It might be a sign that more people were becoming conscious of boating safety and the weather. Mr Baguley attributed the high drowning toll mainly to the unwillingness of swimmers to swim in patrolled areas. “ ‘lt can’t happen to me. It applies to someone else, so she’ll be right,’ is the logic used by many people on the beaches,” he said.