Mussell boats AIS

[vic008 17]

Why dont the Marlborough mussell boats have AIS? Only asking because one showed on the Marl.Sounds Cruising Guide today and got me thinking, they never show.

[mattm 98]

A few reasons I’d say. Primarily, they are part of a business, AIS installation would add to expenses with no return of profit, so why would they?

 

Another reason may be pushback. The harbourmaster discussed forcing all commercial boats in the sounds to get AIS. At the time, the HM had been making a lot of noise about boats including commercial, exceeding speed limits. The thought was the harbour master would use AIS to sit in his office and send out fines for speeding. The commercial operators wouldn’t do it. It’s actually a consideration for many pleasure boats too. It seems silly, but when over summer, there was a ‘zero tolerance day’ you start to understand their view - one day over summer, during the local regatta, I saw a guy hiding behind a sign on the breakwater, peaking around the corner with a radar gun. The HM boat was waiting out of site, just inside the breakwater. I talked to a guy I know who works for the HM office, who said it was a MNZ thing, they send someone to each region once a season, and enforce the rules with ‘zero tolerance’.