Lighting for bay after fisherman’s death

A navigation light will be installed in a remote Marlborough Sounds bay after a fisherman died following a boat collision at night.

The news has brought some comfort to his family, who hope it will stop another “tragic accident” from happening.

Bruce Douglas Flett, 69, died last July on the way to hospital after the boat he was in hit a moored mussel harvester about 30 metres from the shores of Okiwi Bay.

Douglas was returning to the popular boat-launching spot in the dark after spending a day fishing with two other men.

His death, which happened on a flight to Nelson Hospital, left residents of the bay certain it was nearing or exceeding a safe number of moorings, or places boats could be tied.

There are 30 moorings in Okiwi Bay at present, 28 of which are located within 350m of the bay's boat jetty.

Marlborough Harbourmaster Luke Grogan said after talking with residents, his team decided that the bay would be safer with a navigation aid in the water, so ordered a light.

The light, attached to a buoy, will be in place by next summer and help illuminate Okiwi Bay’s moorings at night.

Moorings and the boats moored to them do not need to display a light at night unless their resource consent states otherwise, but boats that are temporarily anchored do.

Douglas’s daughter, Lower Moutere resident Grace Goodman, was relieved to learn steps had been taken to prevent a similar “tragic accident” from happening to anyone else.

Okiwi Bay is a popular spot for boat launching, especially for those travelling to Rangitoto ki te Tonga/d’Urville Island.

Luke could not confirm the cause of the accident as Maritime New Zealand are still investigating, but says most collisions involving recreational boats occur because people are speeding or have not kept a look-out.

“Immediately [after the incident] we identified a need to continue our work on emphasising safe speeds,” he says.

Vessels can travel up to five knots if they were within 200m of Marlborough’s coastline, but boaties are encouraged to drive at a speed suitable to their situation.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see at night, no matter how much you stare out the window. There could be rain or fog. When that happens, and when your technology fails to give you a good picture, the person evaluating what speed it safe needs to take that into account and proceed accordingly.”

Luke says radar and human lookouts work best for navigating at night, but not chartplotters – devices that put a person’s location on a map. Chartplotters often do not provide boaties enough information, leading to confusion.

Maritime New Zealand principal investigator Tracy Philips says the investigation into Douglas's death is in its final stages. A decision has been made not to prosecute.

“The investigation has so far involved interviewing a number of witnesses and the local boating community to understand the circumstances surrounding the collision with a moored boat in dark conditions,” Tracy says.

“A key learning from the incident is that all boaties, regardless of their experience, should drive their boats to the conditions and always maintain a situational awareness and an appropriate speed. While instruments are a helpful navigation tool, they do not always show obstructions on them.”

While there is no limit to the number of moorings that could go down in Marlborough's bays, owners need a resource consent before they can put a new one down.

Most of Okiwi Bay’s moorings will see their consents expire in the next decade. Residents of the bay have opposed several requests to put moorings in their waters.

Boaties are encouraged to make use of free resources like the free safer boating guide from saferboating.org.nz