Gold Coast Waterways are asking for interested parties to have their say on speed limits including the Broadwater. It is important to get our views heard and the more people to do the survey the better. There is also a Map that you can place comments on any areas you select including the main sailing area.
The survey talks about 3 speed zones. Red, yellow and green. The sailing area is proposed to be a yellow zone but the speed limit and vessel size is yet to be determined so you can see why it is important to have your say.
Some preliminary results of the survey are shown below. The LAST thing we want is 40 knots!!!!
Ideally we would like a RED zone (5 knots for powered boats) in the sailing area and the current proposal can be objected to as I have done using the map below. The red is the thumbs down for the proposal. You will have to register to make the changes.
Follow the link below and check out the map and do the survey!!!
gcwa.qld.gov.au/404-friendly/
Hi Phil - so is my understanding correct that sail craft (ie windsurfers) will not be subject to the speed limit?
Select to expand quoteboardboy said...
Hi Phil - so is my understanding correct that sail craft (ie windsurfers) will not be subject to the speed limit?
I imagine all craft may be subject to limits however may be difficult to check our actual speeds but the issue is having an area for passive water sports and our run would cross the proposed western chanel which coild ultimately result in some nasty incidents.
Hi Phil,
Just to clarify did you thumbs-down the current proposal to make the existing green area (40kts) to make it yellow (6kts for boats>8m)?
(At the moment the runs are mostly across a green area already right?)
What are the extents of the sailing area you want to make red; can you post a map of that perhaps?
Hi Sandy,
The sailing area is basically the areas with the red and green circles. The yellow zone is an improvement over the open 40 knot zone but the problem is we don't really know what the yellow zone will be in terms of speed and boat size. The intent is to open up a Western channel through the sailing area that will greatly increase traffic. In the top of the map the red 6 knot zone is being changed to a yellow zone to make the Western channel more attractive.
I gave the thumbs down in favour of a 6 knot zone in the sailing area as the only safe option.
As for windsurfers not being subject to the 6 knot speed limit? That is difficult question. We have suggested that windsurfers/kiters be exempt from the limit but this like the 6 knot zone has not been clarified. We cannot even get clarification over what windsurfers are classed as or what rules apply in our interaction with other watercraft! The last I heard was that kiters we classed as swimmers?????
can all these 0/1 areas be made a "powered craft non-planing" area? Maybe the closest you can get to this presently is "no wash", but i don't think it's fair for the boat operators to have to avoid creating wash.
in my opinion, for powered craft - Just a sensible lower speed allowing most powered vessels to remain "on the plane" and with "no erratic maneuvering", would be nice, but monitoring planing speeds might be difficult for authorities and so non-planing might be the only solution??
