Supreme Boating Safety Award - Waikato Regional Council wins

by Joanne Glassford on 30 Aug 2014 Coastguard Boating Education hosted New Zealand’s first-ever Boating Safety Conference on Thursday 28th August at the Voyager Maritime NZ Museum in Auckland.

Attendees from the boating safety and maritime industry sector, marine manufacturers and the marine industry together with the legislators, Maritime New Zealand and Regional Councils/Harbourmasters came together to discuss ways in which we can collectively grow boating as a leisure pastime and a major industry.

The highlight of the conference was the Awards Dinner where the organisation and its stakeholders took great pleasure in celebrating and recognising achievement in the promotion of boating safety. This year’s Boating Safety Award was presented to the Waikato Regional Council for their tremendous contribution to water safety not only within their own region but also nationwide.

In 2013 the Waikato Regional Council released the MarineMate app. The free Smartphone app gives water users across New Zealand easy access to all the information they will need when heading out onto the water and is an effective way to help keep people safer. Nicole Botherway led the national project team to develop the application with funding from Maritime NZ, the ACC, Land Information NZ, regional council harbourmasters and support from Water Safety New Zealand.

Recently Waikato Regional Council joined forces with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to make bar crossings safer for boaties. Crossing a bar is one of the highest risk activities and has consistently high accident rates in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. The council produced five films showing local bars, Raglan, Tairua, Bowentown and Kaituna, as well a general ‘how to’ film on how to cross them safely.

CBE General Manager Neil Murray said that 'the Waikato Regional Councils activity in promoting water safety is consistent with the collective goal that boating in New Zealand should be a safe and pleasurable experience for all, we congratulate them on their award.'