PLEASE NOTE: There is no dialogue in this video, so no transcript or captions are provided.
Simulations carried out at Maritime Safety Queensland’s “Smartship Australia” simulator established the safe operating parameters for the “Ovation of the Seas” during its visit to Brisbane and played a pivotal role in ensuring that the ship could enter, berth at and depart the port safely.
This video combines footage of the arrival of the cruise ship with the simulations to illustrate the role of Smartship Australia in planning for the ship’s arrival and berthing.
Attention all boaties – do you know your Colregs?
How well do you remember the Collision Regulations? – watch our video to find out.
Phil - Hi, I’m Phil from Maritime Safety Queensland, today we are down here to talk about lifejackets, more importantly, lifejackets on children.
Children under 12 years of age in an open boat less than 4.8m in length must wear a lifejacket at all times when you are underway in the vessel.
When buying a lifejacket for your children or yourself, the best thing you can do is put on the lifejacket and go and jump in a swimming pool or in a small shallow area, where you can get the understanding of how that lifejacket is going to behave on you when you’re in the water.
Do yourself a favour, take off the lifejacket whilst you’re in the water and try and put it back on again and try and get your children to do this as well. Have fun in your lifejacket, so they can understand how they’re going to behave, react and what if feels like to be wearing that lifejacket for a long period of time.
This is an adult sized jacket we have fitted to Chloe today, it looks nice cause it’s nice and pink and matches her shirt but it just doesn’t fit. As you can see once Chloe puts her hands in the air to reach up for Mum or Dad to help her out of the water the first thing that’s going to happen is she’s going to slip straight out of that lifejacket. We can’t stress how important it is, especially for the children, to use crotch straps and lifejackets that fit correctly.
Aiden and Chloe - If you’re not wearing it, it can’t save you”
Marine incident reporting
No one plans to experience a marine incident when boating but letting us know could prevent the same thing from happening to others. Marine Incident Reporting could save a life – watch our video to find out more.
Luan - My name’s Luan Baldwin from Maritime Safety Queensland and I’m a Senior Investigator based here in Brisbane.
Why report marine incidents?
It’s very important to report marine incidents, aside from the fact that it’s a legislative requirement, MSQ as the regulator really need to have that information so that they can make decisions on marinas and aids to navigation. Maybe there’s changes to the education or the enforcement, compliance enforcement, section. We really need to have that information.
Which incidents must be reported?
Some of the more serious marine incidents involve the safety of people and life at sea. So, essentially, loss of person from a ship, or abandoning a ship which involves people in the water, collisions between vessels, running aground and being stranded, or even damage to infrastructure that can’t be seen ‘til later on.Serious marine incidents should be reported directly to a Shipping Inspector so that could be Maritime Safety Queensland Officers,Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol Officers or the Water Police.
Dale - My name is Dale Kersnovske and I’m an Administration Officer at Maritime Safety Queensland, Brisbane. It’s always that age old thing, ya know, it’ll never happen to me and then if it does and you follow the right procedures than that can certainly help others in the future.
Luan - Cause your dangerous situation might provide learnings to prevent that from happening to someone else.
Your incident does matter
Dale - In reporting your incident you may save someone else’s life.
Maintain your vessel
The summer boating season is underway. One important part of making sure you and your passengers are safe on the water is to ensure your boat is ready and able to make a safe journey. Watch this video for some key information on maintaining your vessel.
Anthony - So, G’day, we are here at Nautique Central in Southport. I’m with Ben Kirby who is the workshop manager and head mechanic and Anthony is my name from Maritime Safety Queensland. We’re going to talk today a little bit about inboard petrol engines and the management of those safely.
It’s your boat not your car.
Anthony - Ben, you’ve seen a lot in your career as a marine mechanic on inboard petrol engines, could you share some of the stories that you have with us.
Ben - Sure Anthony, One of the most common things that we see in the workshop is with the 12 volt system. Customers going and trying to save a few dollars and put an automotive starter motor or alternator and things on their engines. Quite often they’re not ignition protected system so you do introduce fuel into the bilge and they have the potential to ignite that fuel, where a marine specified starter motor or alternator won’t have that.
Another real common one we see is people putting their own dual battery systems into boats, not protecting those batteries properly, switching systems, bringing over things from the four wheel drive market into the boat which aren’t always spec’d (sic) for marine use. Not fusing cables properly and things like that, that’s a common one.
Another thing that we see all too often now is people using ethanol in open fuel breather boats. So, big problem with ethanol on some of the older boats especially carburetted boats is it can actually attack some of the rubbers in the fuel pump diaphragms and things like that.
Check it out, before you go out
Anthony - All this leads to a good maintenance regime and getting to know your local marine mechanic and getting a relationship happening where you can do some sort of maintenance plan. You’d agree?
Ben – Absolutely. I believe, you know, that most boats, ski boats, wakeboard boats should be serviced every 50 hours. Twelve month interval absolutely before you take it out for a service get it in, get your fuel tank checked, get your service done. A lot of guys doing it themselves aren’t pulling the floors up, aren’t having a look at these fuel tanks, mounting for fuel tanks, conditions of fuel lines, conditions of carburettors and things like that. It’s critical stuff. We’ve seen more and more of these fires every year and less and less of these older boats coming through our shop. So, you really need to get on top of that if you’re an owner.
Have fun, stay safe this summer.
Anthony - So, today we’ve discussed safe operation of inboard petrol engines particularly in wake boats. We’ve also talked a little bit about some do it yourself risks and why you should get a really good relationship struck up with a marine mechanic and be proactive about maintenance and a maintenance regime.
