TAIC publishes report on 2021 deadly recreational boat incident in Manukau Harbour

The New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) recently published its investigation report covering a recreational boat capsizing that left three people dead in the waters of the Auckland Region on October 16, 2021.

On the said date, a 5.5-metre recreational power boat was returning from a fishing trip outside Manukau Harbour. While the boat was crossing the bar, it became swamped by a series of steep, breaking waves, its engine lost power, and it capsized and sank.

A boat occupant called 111 and a rescue helicopter and two nearby private vessels responded promptly, recovering all four occupants from the water.

None of the four occupants wore lifejackets. Tragically, only one person out of the four survived, and the wreckage of the boat was never found.

Why it happened

The TAIC said the cause of this accident was that the boat was steered into the hazardous waters of the bar, putting it at risk of broaching and swamping, rather than via the safer Southern Channel.

Also worth noting is that the skipper had no formal maritime qualifications but about 20 years' experience in boats and had crossed the Manukau bar more than 100 times to reach a favourite fishing spot.

The key circumstances:

• Emergency preparedness: If everybody had been wearing a proper lifejacket, it's likely they all would have survived.
• Impairment: The four boat occupants were tired after a day's fishing, had consumed alcohol and not enough food – factors that combined to reduce their survival time in the water.
• Risky decisions: The route through rough water was more hazardous than other options for getting past the harbour bar.

Being safer: equip, think and communicate for emergencies

On every single boat trip, recreational or commercial, everyone deserves to return home safe. Every skipper should equip, think, and communicate for emergencies:

• Equip: Have equipment that offers the best chance of survival in an emergency. Always wear a life jacket when crossing a bar. Have a boat that can handle the conditions. Older boats may need more buoyancy to survive a swamping event. Boats built and maintained under the Compliance Plate Certification programme will very likely stay afloat after a swamping, thus providing flotation and a gathering point for survivors in the water. (The wreck of the boat was never found, so the commission was unable to determine when in the swamp/capsize sequence the engine failed.).
• Think: Plan to avoid hazards, to survive if there's an accident, and know what emergency services are available. Talk with other boaties and research local knowledge about what areas that are suitable for current conditions. Understand that alcohol impairs co-ordination and judgement and shortens survival time in the water.
• Communicate: skippers and passengers should be able to call for help: For audio to many, marine radio is vital to alert everybody within range and listening to the same VHF channel. For visual to many, use pyrotechnic distress signals such as flares and smoke. And a cellphone is a good backup if it can work when wet, but remember: you're initially only calling one person.

Safety issues: unregulated recreational boats and boating

In New Zealand recreational boating, too often lives are at risk from a lack of regulation.

• Recreational boating is unregulated: New Zealand does not assess skippers for minimum standards of knowledge and boat handling. Anyone can be in charge of a recreational boat – even people with no safe boating skills and no understanding of their responsibilities for the lives of everyone on board. TAIC's watchlist highlights these dangerous gaps in too many recreational boat users' knowledge and skills; as well as the lack of control over impairment from abuse of alcohol and drugs.
• Recreational boats are unregulated: New Zealand does not require registration and does not impose minimum standards for design and construction.

Recommendations for future safety

The TAIC said that, for more than twelve years, the ongoing reluctance by Ministers, the Ministry of Transport and Maritime NZ to regulate recreational boats and boaters has constituted a tacit acceptance that every year 15 to 20 recreational boaters die as a result of their own actions. The commission has made two new recommendations:

• Regulate boating: Recommendation 002/23 calls on the Ministry of Transport to revisit its stated position (response to TAIC recommendation 004/11) that there is not enough evidence of a need for compulsory licensing and education of skippers.
  • The Ministry argued that safety education campaigns are better than licensing. It said it could reconsider its position "if new evidence suggests that introducing skipper licensing, in addition to educational campaigns, would make a material difference".
  • The TAIC says education on its own is not enough. Over twenty years of education advocacy for the Safer Boating Code, there has been no significant reduction in the number of recreational boating fatalities. The problem is, listening is optional, and too many skippers choose not to listen. The TAIC continues to recommend skipper licensing to make listening and behaving safely less optional.
• Regulate boats: Recommendation 003/23 calls on the Ministry of Transport to research the merits of regulating recreational boating. Bringing New Zealand into line with overseas best practice could include licensing, boat registration, and boat design standards.
  • The TAIC said the Ministry accepted this recommendation, saying it already does such research.