Appendix III - Bar crossings, closures, weather and sea/swell conditions advisory

The following advice is provided as information for vessels crossing coastal/river mouth bars (extract from the ‘Waikato Regional Council Harbour Risk Management Plan and Safety Management System, 2006’).

Background
Environment Waikato will rely upon the forecasts provided by the Met Service and broadcast over the respective Maritime Radio (Plenty Maritime, Runaway Maritime, Auckland Maritime). Harbourmasters of bar harbours will need to advise the local Coastguard radio station of conditions at harbour bars and the status of the bar.

Harbour bar crossings represent high risk and in some cases a bar will need to be closed under certain conditions. These are some recommended guidelines for a bar advisory service in conjunction with coastguard.

Exemptions
It does not apply to persons surfing, windsurfing, kayaking or using personal water craft.

Bar status
Level 1: Normal – Free navigation
Level 2: Marginal – Navigate with caution
Level 3: Not recommended – Navigation is likely to be hazardous

• Harbourmasters will inform their respective Coastguard stations when bar conditions are marginal or not recommended or it changes from what it is being reported to be over the Coastguard radio. In the absence of such information, normal conditions are assumed to apply.
• Coastguard will then broadcast the bar status in their station notices.
• Harbourmasters are to inform Coastguard when bar conditions return to the normal condition.
• Harbourmasters are to place public signs up at either their harbourmasters office, appropriate boat ramps and/or wharves advising of bar status. Harbourmasters to decide where is appropriate for signage.

Bar crossing procedure

• Please also refer to Boat Notice 10/2001 – ‘National Code of practice for bar crossings’. See Annex 7 of the Harbour Risk Management Plan for a copy.
• Persons wishing to navigate across the bar when the bar status is at level 2 or 3 are advised to inform Coastguard when they are about to cross the bar and to inform Coastguard when the safe crossing has been made.
• If the safe crossing call is not received by Coastguard within an appropriate time then Coastguard will initiate search and rescue procedures.

Guidance for bar status conditions
The following parameters will be used by harbourmasters for assessing bar status:

Personal flotation devices
Bars are categorised as areas of risk to the safety of persons on board the vessel navigating over the bar. As such, in compliance with Maritime Rule 91.4.6 and Waikato Regional Council Navigation Safety Bylaw 2.1.6, all persons onboard are to wear a properly secured personal flotation device of an appropriate size for that person for the duration of the transit across the bar.

Bar closure
Notwithstanding the bar crossing procedure, the harbourmasters will retain the right to close the bar to all vessels or to classes of vessels if, in their view, such action is necessary for the safety of navigation under section 650C (3a) of the Local Government Act. This can be occasioned by severe weather and sea conditions or by reduced visibility when leading lights and beacons cannot be identified in good time to allow for safe passage over the bar.

Failure to comply, without reasonable cause, with a direction issued by the harbourmaster under s650C 3(a) is committing an offence against the Local Government Act.

Areas of responsibility

Note: There are other bars along the west coast of the Waikato region such as Mokau, Awakino and Marokopa that do not have a local Coastguard radio. Therefore, the assumption has been made that these areas will have fairly similar patterns to that of the Raglan bar and therefore the Raglan Coastguard station notices shall apply in these areas.