The Otago Regional Council approved a new navigation bylaw at its meeting this week.
The council had been working through the new bylaw, which was up for review.
It had tweaked parts of the bylaw after public input. An issue had been raised about new rules around anchoring boats for more than two weeks in Otago Harbour.
Queenstown maritime educator and adviser Katie McNabb said in her submission there was a need for the delegation rules given to the Queenstown Lakes District Council around navigation to return to the regional council.
‘‘For the safety of water users in the area, delegation must be removed,’’ she said.
‘‘The extent of the area and the many commercial vessels, resident recreational craft and significant numbers of visiting craft need a reliable and careful approach, firstly for education and secondly for enforcement. This is about saving lives.’’
Ms McNabb has been recognised as an expert witness in the Environment Court since 2002. Her specific area of expertise is the use of the Resource Management Act and navigation and safety rules in jet boating.
Queenstown Lakes had been granted delegation by the ORC in 2004.
She said the area had significant commercial waterways.
At present, the district council’s harbour master role was operated under the authority and oversight of the district council with just one mention of the regional council in the delegation, she said.
The existing arrangement had the district council contracted to a third party, an external provider, rather than directly employing a harbour master.
She described this as ‘‘an extraordinary arrangement with no guarantees of quality, qualifications of staff, of service and/or responsibility to the delegation from the regional council’’.
She said at the hearing a ‘‘great boating migration’’ occurred on December 27 as a lot of boats headed inland, but this created confusion as the rules between authorities were different.
Boaties would go past the red bridge on the Clutha River and things like speed rules would change, she said.
The regional council said it was satisfied with the current split of responsibilities between the Queenstown Lakes and Otago harbour masters.
In changes introduced in the new bylaw, all commercial vessels carrying 12 or more passengers, and all commercial vessels 15m in length or more, will have to carry a mandatory automatic identification system, which will help navigation security.
The council also made changes around anchoring.
The draft new bylaw said after a vessel had utilised a 14-day allowance to anchor in one place, there would be no returning to anchor in Otago Harbour within six months.
There had been pushback against the new bylaw.
Tim Vick said it would be overly restrictive and would capture people the council did not intend to.
Simon Macrae said the rule did not help people who wanted to stay and work in the town while on a travelling holiday.
The council said the proposed amendments were intended to prevent boat users and owners getting around the 14-day limit by shifting vessels to different locations. That resulted in a lack of appropriate anchoring locations for visiting vessels, safety and navigational issues, and would allow anchoring for longer periods of time than intended under the existing bylaw.
The council changed the bylaw to no vessel would be allowed to remain within the same or proximate location for longer than 14 days in any six-month period without the prior approval of the harbour master. It was extended to Oamaru Harbour but did not include Queenstown Lakes waterways.
