Safety At Sea

As serious fishos, many of us are boat owners. I’ve been a boatie all my life and spent a lot of time on the water from small estuaries and creeks to 40 miles offshore. My first boating experience was in an old De Haviland car topper that my father had when I was a young bloke. That was back in the 60’s when there were very few rules and no one to check or enforce them. Life jackets, flares and safety equipment were optional, drinking alcohol was, at times, mandatory and most boat owners probably never even had a boat license. The figures show that boating fatalities back in the 50’s to 70’s were common so the rules changed and some regulation was enforced.

Back then I was a young bloke who never took a lot of care. We’d go out fishing in a 12 foot tinnie without the required safety gear and even head offshore in a 4.5 centre console without checking the weather or logging on with Marine Rescue. We got fined by Waterways for an unregistered boat, no license, no paddle and no lifejackets years ago. We also got caught out badly 10 miles out in a howling westerly and limped back home in a state of panic for 2 hours. Looking back, I can’t help but think about how lucky we were to survive a few incidents and also how stupid we were to put ourselves in some dangerous and life threatening situations.

When I semi-retired to Hervey Bay last year I decided I wanted to give something back