While jetskiers suffer another barrage of bad publicity after two accidents over the weekend, Tauranga Volunteer Coastguard is telling the story of a good jetskier who nearly sunk his craft helping another boatie out.
Tauranga Volunteer Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker is singing praise of one jetskier's actions at the weekend.
A boat anchored in towards Willow Point in the Tauranga harbour western channel on Friday afternoon was unable to raise its anchor, and radioed the Coastguard, says operations manager Simon Barker.
The jetskier arrived and helped free the anchor, but nearly sank his own craft in the process.
Factors, including the tide, combined to pull the back end of the jetski underwater and flood the engine, says Simon.
The Coastguard boat towed the jetski back to Sulphur Point.
4 comments
Not all jetskiers bad?
Posted on 10-01-2011 19:50 | By dogsbody
Oh yes they are. Jet skis are an anathema to common sense and good boating practice. these things are contrary to all reasonable safe navigation ideals. I know, because I have had plenty of experience and believe no one should get on one without a licence or a guide. they are insanely fast, and have no steering once the power is off. this is where most novices come unstuck. they instinctively throttle off then find they're heading directly at the obstacle with no control. Personal jet craft are also inherently unstable at slow speeds, hence the predicament this guy got into, trying to lift an anchor. forget it. Jet skis are designed and ridden as hoon machines; the water version of boy racers. they generally set out to create mayhem on the water. a very few use them sensibly, as personal fishing or diving platforms; but the bulk are just dangerous missles waiting for a place to cause carnage. even those not colliding at high speed are causing noise and nuisance value through their threatening and unpredictable behaviour. Licence them all or ban them to designated zones before more innocent boaties are injured or killed.
Licencing the answer?
Posted on 11-01-2011 11:32 | By peterin
After spending a week on lake Taupo over the new year observing the behaviour of both boaties AND jetskiers, I am convinced that we need to licence drivers who operate personal water craft in NZ. Some simply choose to ignore the rules or are totally oblivious to them. I have to say that the jetsking practice was pretty safe and considerate from what I saw. It was the boat operators that concerned me. We were nearly hit twice by a boat pulling a skier out of the ski lane! I am a boat owner myself and some of the things you see on the water are unbelievable. If you want an hour of entertainment, just go down to the Sulphur point boat ramp on a Saturday morning and watch the carnage and arrogant behaviour there. When people don't even have common courtesy or can't remember to put in a bung, lift an outboard before winching their boat in or worse, dragging it back up and scraping their skeg on the ramp. Or not being able to back a trailer, or steer a boat in and out of the mooring, you have to wonder why these people have the opportunity to attempt to control a boat at 30+ knots? I think it must be assumed that if you can drive a car, you can drive a boat too. WRONG!!
Here we go again....
Posted on 11-01-2011 14:10 | By Tauranga Tazmin
First and foremost, they are PWC's not necessarily Jetskis! Jetski = J=Kawasaki WaveRunner = Yamaha Seadoo = Bombardier Recreational Products Aquatrax = Honda Now that is settled, and tibs has rightly shown the keyboard cowboy (dogsbody) the inconsistencies of his post, we can get back to talking about licensing them. Since we all know how effective our Government has been with making our roads safer via a Driver License, it is logical that this is the way to go! The Tax that is charged for issuance of a license, and it is nothing but a tax, can then go in the general fund to help pay for whatever the latest party in power thought was necessary to bribe the voters to get there. Once the government has used all this money up, we can then register all the boats under the guise of safety, then that money also can go into the general fund. LOL, are you guys serious? Let me sum up an average summer day on the harbour! - Jetskis zipping around at full throttle being the hoons that dogsbody says they are. - The family boaters out towing their tubes/skiers, whipping them around the shore and other boats like they want them to come off and hurt themselves (cuz that's kelwl) - Fisherman shooting around at full throttle in order to get to their favorite anchor spot in the middle of the shipping lane or harbour entrance - Sail boats under sail/power thinking they have the right of way regardless of the situation, purposely tacking to make other vessels alter course - racing boats running around at 100 mph trying to show everyone how big their pistons are... If you have spent any time on the water, you have seen some of what I have described, but education is unfortunately not the answer. In order to get something from an education, you have to actually care! Which brings us right back to why licensing would never work! Take a long drive on any of the main state highways next long weekend, and see how many licensed drivers are out there and obviously don't care! In the meantime, tight lines and I'll see you on the water! ;-)
Jet ski is a jet ski
Posted on 11-01-2011 15:20 | By dogsbody
Tazmin, whether you like it or not, the generic name for anything fast, dangerous and annoying to the general population is a jet ski -- even tho it started as a brand name its now in every day use, just like Windsurfer, which is a brand name also, but who apart from your english professor or trademark attorney bothers to call them sailboards? now we've got that out of the way, let's focus on the issue, which is containing these pests for the safety of the general populus. the vast majority of powerboaters are out there to enjoy the environment, respect the environment, maybe have a quiet fish, or just get efficiently from point A to B. jet skis are not. they are for the thrill of the ride and rarely have a purposeful destination. many dont give a damn about the environment, they just wanna rip it up. The ride is the purpose, and the faster and more exhilirating and risky, the better. And statistically they are more dangerous, in fact if it hadnt been for a spate of needless tragedies we wouldnt be having this discussion. But it has happned, and will continue, while relative novices can jump astride 130 horsepower and charge at will, at 60 knots. it is a shame for the responsible and reasonable riders, as I suspect Tazmin is, but more control is needed or we will keep seeing disasters on the water.
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