Action may be taken against water-skiers

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 9

Action may be taken against water-skiers

Legal action may be taken by the Lyttelton Harbour Board to prevent small boat owners and waterskiers illegally using bays on the northern side of Lyttelton Harbour.

The board’s small craft committee was told yesterday of several near misses involving skiers and swimmers at Rapaki Bay. An honorary launch warden, Mr D. Rhodes, said he had been threatened and abused by boat owners when he had asked them to stop ski-ing from Rapaki beach. Mr Rhodes said his requests had often been ignored.

A petition, signed by 54 people mainly from Rapaki, was presented to the committee expressing concern about the danger to swimmers from waterskiers using the beach.

One incident involved a ski-ing rope entangled round a swimmer’s neck, Mr

Rhodes said. “They (the skiers) know they are doing wrong but know we (the wardens) have no power,” he said. “If there were several prosecutions it might bring them down to earth.”

The committee agreed to a suggestion by the Harbourmaster, Captain J. A. Barbour, to erect bigger signs stating speed and water ski-ing restrictions.

“Unfortunately there is no room on the north side of the harbour for a ski lane,” Captain Barbour said. “There is a small bay past Cass Bay which could possibly be used by experienced skiers, but it has a narrow entrance."

The committee adopted a recommendation that board staff take action to bring prosecutions against waterskiers who are in breach of the board’s by-laws.

The cdmmittee also recommended that its by-laws

be distributed to boat retailers and publically notified by the Harbourmaster. Mr Rhodes said that Harbour Board wardens agreed that a successful prosecution would provide a deterrent to bad behaviour on the harbour. He said the wardens had given consideration to a speed blitz similar to the effort carried out bj’ the Ministry of Transport on roads.

Gun emplacement

The committee agreed to a request by the Lyttelton Borough Council to resite the moveable parts of the Naval Point gun emplacement. The committee said the emplacement would be moved on the condition that the original gun, now at T.S. Cornwell, Redcliffs, was returned.

The board plans to demolish part of the site to allow for widening of an accessway at the base of the Naval Point cliff.