This is by no means a new subject, but rears its ugly head every time a rescue is set in place for an ‘adventurer’ - unfortunately occasionally with loss of life to the would-be rescuers. We have had silly fools set off to cross Bass Strait without any knowledge of sea canoeing whatsoever. We have had extremely ill-planned attempts to row and/or paddle to New Zealand.

I have the impression that the coastguard in Great Britain is plagued by such incidents, and it would appear that the USA is not without its quota of fools as well.

Here in Australia we are seeing a remarkable surge in the purchase of sea kayaks, and my fear is that very shortly we are going to see novices getting into trouble. The other problem is the relative ease with which these people can also purchase an EPIRB, or water-proof radio, or even flares. I foresee the situation where people are just going to set off into the wild blue yonder with the belief that should they get into trouble they will just call for help - and the resulting publicity and letters to the editor from the armchair critics will force the politicians to maybe impose restrictions on our activity. I believe that some European countries impose an offshore limit of several hundred metres for kayaks - how the hell are we going to get to Flinders Island if they bring in a similar rule in Australia?

I have a proposal to put to the politicians NOW, before it happens.

Any person calling for help, gets help - but immediately they are ashore their kayak(s) are confiscated, and not returned till a payment of $2000 is made. If they were genuinely in danger of dying - then $2000 is a small sum to pay for your life. If you were irresponsible and shouldn’t have been out there in the first place, then it serves you right. If you don’t have the $2000, then your kayak(s) are sold to recover the money - you probably don’t want it again anyway if you've just been through a life threatening experience.

Somehow the legislation would need to be worded to apply only to human-powered craft (including windsurfers, lilos etc), I’m not suggesting that fishermen going about their legitimate business, and maybe having an unforseen gearbox failure, should be charged - the fee is only meant to apply to so-called ‘adventurers’.

The purpose of this fee is to make people think twice about what they are doing, and after a couple of confiscations, the message may start to get through. In the mean time, this does absolutely nothing to stop the rest of the responsible kayakers from pursuing their sport whenever and however they please.

You will note that I have stated that this should apply to people calling for help. At least four times in my life I have had the police start inquiries about my position and well being - after well intentioned people have reported that I may be in trouble. As a matter of fact the first time occurred when I was only fourteen, and having the time of my life sailing a canoe on the river Derwent in a NW gale. A person living right on the beach saw me take off at high speed across the river and thought I was out of control - so rang the police. By the time the police boat was manned and shot off down the river to look for me, I had gone about and was back on the beach again, and only heard about the incident when I went home for dinner. I had noticed the police boat storming up and down the river, but never for a moment imagined it was looking for me.

There have been several other times in more recent years, when people who don’t have the faintest idea of what a sea kayak is capable of, have also started a search for me (fortunately most were resolved by phone calls before a physical search got under way).

I do not believe that the above suggestion of a $2000 ‘fee’ should apply unless the person in question calls for help themselves. It is unfortunate that well meaning people may start an unnecessary search, and they may well be responsible for saving a life or two, but the responsible sea kayaker who has improved their skills to cope with ‘bad conditions’ should not be penalised when they’re just out there having fun - quite safely.

The Maatsuyker Canoe Clubs’ policy is NOT to carry EPIRB’s, or other emergency equipment - our attitude is that if we get into trouble, we should get ourselves out of it. (See David Lewis's quote). There was a lot of publicity about an abortive attempt to paddle to New Zealand some years ago, and we wrote to some politicians suggesting we were quite happy about this attempt - provided they left their EPIRB behind. They were carrying one but stated they had no intention of using it - so why carry it in the first place?

And in any case there are well documented cases; of a person just a few kilometres off shore - who had called up on a radio, requesting help. He was alive and only a few kilometres off shore - yet was dead when the rescuers arrived. Another time a plane ditched in Bass Strait, and the pilot got into the water. He waved to a plane circling overhead for some hours, and yet the authorities did not come within a bull’s-roar of getting anywhere near him in time to rescue him.

Any misguided fool who goes to sea with the implicit belief that someone will come to their rescue, is a bloody idiot. And just remember that if conditions are so bad that you are in trouble, the rescuers may also have trouble getting anywhere near you. I once took part in a night ‘search and rescue’ by a volunteer coastguard organisation - I sat out to sea in my sea kayak within a known area, and they came looking for me - on a fairly still sort of night. They did not actually get round to searching where I was, because they thought it was a bit rough, and searched closer in-shore along the coast further - heaven help me if I’d been in real trouble!

So that’s my proposition - if you are a responsible kayaker you have nothing to worry about. If you’re a fool - you’ll pay for being one.

Laurie Ford.
8 April, 1998