Marine Police - Nabbed(well nearly)

[Gcarj]

Hello Everyone,

Just thought I would share an experience I had the morning at Manly.

Decided that a mate a I would head out for a few hours early before the wind got into full swing this morning. Rocked up at Manly boat ramp at 3am to a light breeze and planned to head back in about 9am.

When I pulled in I got out of the car to prepare the boat when the Police pulled up along side. We had a chat about where I was heading etc and then they asked if They could take a look at my safety gear on board. I said yeah no problem.

I then jumped in the boat an lifted the lid on a storage box i have in the middle of the boat the I sit on when fishing etc. In this box I have all safety gear, life jackets, V sheet, Flares, Maps etc etc, I handed over the flares to check the expiry and found they were out of date since July.

The police then told me i could get a $220 fine if I went more than 1/2 nautical mile from land. Then they said I was up for another $220 fine because I store the life jackets in a box without an approved sticker stating they are in there.

After deciding that its best to call it quits for this trip and head home, the police then asked if I had a fire extinguisher on board because my boat was over 5m in lenght. I said yes. They said have you had it serviced in the past 12 months. I said, i didnt realise they had to be? Dont remember ever seeing an expiry date on it?

Anyway, I decided id better go through all my gear an make a note of all the expiry dates to keep this from happening again.

One question I have though is about the fire extinguisher. Is the date of purchase the start of the 12 month period or what?

Im not really sure what the go is with the requirements, I looked at the QLD marine website but still feel the info is lacking as to what or if I have to service/check the thing is.....any one shed some light on it for me?

Cheers

Glenn

[bootyinblue]

Flares are pretty self explanatory.... the expiry date is printed on the outside of them and there are charts and bearings indicating beyond what points you need to carry them.

New lifejacket laws came in 1st Jan 2012 and has been on the front page of MSQ website since late last year. Cheapest stickers I have seen at Charltons at Redbank for $2. Or you can make your own with red marker on white tape or vice versa and visible to each person on board clearly.

[Gcarj]

Flares are pretty self explanatory.... the expiry date is printed on the outside of them and there are charts and bearings indicating beyond what points you need to carry them.

New lifejacket laws came in 1st Jan 2012 and has been on the front page of MSQ website since late last year. Cheapest stickers I have seen at Charltons at Redbank for $2. Or you can make your own with red marker on white tape or vice versa and visible to each person on board clearly.

Trust me mate, no excuses from me. Cant believe I let it slip.

Being extremely busy at work and limited boating opportunities in the past 6months had me too keen to get on the water.

Bit of luck anyone reading this post checks their gear as well to prevent the same situation

[bootyinblue]

Good heads up for everyone... I am heading out in a minute to check my fire extinguisher and do some research.

Also a heads up for anyone looking to get a boat licence in the near future. From Jan 2013 there will be more hoops to jump through inclding a series of assesments to be signed off by a current licecne holder, and as far as I can read this is over and above the RMDL course. Guess its a bit like a Learners log book for a car.

[brmil68]

Hi Glenn,

not real sure if it the same with your fire extinguishers but in the aircraft industry I have to weigh the bottles and record the weight every 12 months from date of manufacture.They are a lifed item as well,the ones we use are five years.I'd be looking on it for a date of manufacture stamp on the bottle,might be abbreviated DOM.Give your local fire station a call they should be able to help.If the went so damm expensive i could of nicked some labels from work and weighed em for ya , but I'm sure I'd get in some form of strife if I do that..

Cheers Brad..

[AZZA]

This came up awhile ago on another forum and this was the result, the most you would be able to do is give it shake to show that the contents are not compacted.

Marine Safety Queensland fire extinguisher regs

MARINE INFORMATION BULLETIN

Servicing of Portable Fire Extinguishers

PURPOSE

This bulletin has been published to provide vessel owners and operators with guidance on

how to comply with the safety equipment servicing and replacement requirements of section

41 of the Transport Operations (Marine Safety) Regulation 2004 (TOMSR).

BACKGROUND

TOMSR section 41 requires that a fire extinguisher must show a legible expiry date. With the

exception of fire extinguishers for "one off" use it is not common for manufacturers to provide

an expiry date on their equipment. Examples of where expiry dates are used are aerosol

and non-rechargeable types of fire extinguishers. Maritime Safety Queensland has gazetted

an exemption from the legislation to allow an alternate service arrangement, shown below, to

be used.

REQUIREMENTS

For the purpose of sections 12(3)(, 31(1)(f) and 41 of the Regulation:

. Fire extinguishers marked with an expiry date are to be serviced or replaced before

the expiry date.

. On a recreational ship, fire extinguishers are to be capable of extinguishing a fire on a

ship quickly and effectively.

. Fire extinguishers on commercial ships are to be serviced annually and otherwise

maintained in accordance with Australian Standard 1851.1.

Alternative arrangements to the expiry date requirements of section 41 are:

. On a recreational ship a fire extinguisher is to be in good working order.

. On a commercial ship a record of fire extinguisher servicing is to be kept with the

ship's documents. Maintenance records for a fire extinguisher shall begin on the date

the fire extinguisher is placed in service and the service cycle for the fire extinguisher

shall commence from that date.

Document Approved by: Director (Maritime Safety) Approval date: 9 November 2006

MSQ Document Reference: MAR1219sh7 Expiry date: 9 November 2007

[TIM D]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

[Gcarj]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

Hahaha, thankfully they were ok about it. They actually said to me they thought the BP next to the tackle shop sold flares? I went for a look and the BP guy just looked confused so I took that as a No, conceeded defeat and went home to bed

[Old Scaley]

Good to be reminded about safety gear. You don't want it to let you down at the very time you need it most. Don't forget to check your lights as well. Just because your boat came with already installed doesn't mean they are legal.

[Gad]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

I personally would not give a hoot if they(police or boating/fisheries) were munching on donuts while doing their checks,at least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster.

I think that is what the majority of boaties/fishos want them to do

[fishingnut]

Good to see em out enforcing the law, shame there isn't more dpi officers out there checking bag and size limits

[TIM D]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

I personally would not give a hoot if they(police or boating/fisheries) were munching on donuts while doing their checks,at least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster.

I think that is what the majority of boaties/fishos want them to do

Doing checks is fine, but you don't try and stop a boat half way across South Passage Bar to check safety gear.

cheers tim

[Gcarj]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

I personally would not give a hoot if they(police or boating/fisheries) were munching on donuts while doing their checks,at least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster.

I think that is what the majority of boaties/fishos want them to do

Yeah thats my though too, a bit pissed my fishing trip was canned but happy that they alerted me to my negligence. Only takes that one time for tragedy to strike and your gear letting you down.

No matter what ive got to get the flares and extinguisher sorted, knowing i dont have to pay a whopping fine on top of it makes it that much easier to handle

[Gad]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

I personally would not give a hoot if they(police or boating/fisheries) were munching on donuts while doing their checks,at least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster.

I think that is what the majority of boaties/fishos want them to do

Doing checks is fine, but you don't try and stop a boat half way across South Passage Bar to check safety gear.

cheers tim

ah, did I miss something? when did this occur in Gcarjs` relating of the events

[TIM D]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

I personally would not give a hoot if they(police or boating/fisheries) were munching on donuts while doing their checks,at least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster.

I think that is what the majority of boaties/fishos want them to do

Doing checks is fine, but you don't try and stop a boat half way across South Passage Bar to check safety gear.

cheers tim

ah, did I miss something? when did this occur in Gcarjs` relating of the events

No you said " At least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster "

Getting stopped half way across South Passage Bar to check safety gear has nothing to do with Gcarj's thread, it happened in a mates boat a few months back. Not real good form from the doughnut munchers in my opinion.

Sorry i guess i'm not the biggest fan of the boys in blue

cheers tim

[Gad]

Sounds like they were bored, the servo up the road from the harbour must have been out of doughnuts :whistle:

cheers tim

I personally would not give a hoot if they(police or boating/fisheries) were munching on donuts while doing their checks,at least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster.

I think that is what the majority of boaties/fishos want them to do

Doing checks is fine, but you don't try and stop a boat half way across South Passage Bar to check safety gear.

cheers tim

ah, did I miss something? when did this occur in Gcarjs` relating of the events

No you said " At least their out doing checks that may prevent a mishap turning out to be an emergency/disaster "

Getting stopped half way across South Passage Bar to check safety gear has nothing to do with Gcarj's thread, it happened in a mates boat a few months back. Not real good form from the doughnut munchers in my opinion.

Sorry i guess i'm not the biggest fan of the boys in blue

cheers tim

thanks for the additional info,I now understand where South Passage bar fits into your previous post

[tugger]

Great reminder Glenn for everybody heading out on the water

[mick fillet]

ya wana know somthin bout the fire extinguisher,no where does it say it has to be a certain class of extinguisher(eg powder) to put out a certain type of fire(recreational use) so there for a metal bucket clearly marked fire extingisher never goes out of date. whitworths sell em.