changes are expected to save 12 lives a year<\/a>, with Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Glen Scanlon calling it a “seatbelt moment” for lifejackets. <\/p>\nSo what do boaties need to know? And what kind of lifejackets should be worn? <\/p>\n
Scanlon told Breakfast that lifejackets should be accredited. Accredited jackets could be found at all marine shops, and include details about what they do and their buoyancy level. <\/p>\n
Boat and fishing clubs also had “really great advice about what you should use for the different type of activity you’re undertaking”.<\/p>\n
Scanlon said both foam and inflatable lifejackets were effective, explaining that now was a great time to check their condition. <\/p>\n
“The change in the law is effectively moving from you have to carry them on your boat to you having to wear them. So a lot of people out there are already set up. All they need to do is that check.” <\/p>\n
He said lifejackets should fit “snug as a hug”. <\/p>\n
“With a life jacket, you shouldn’t really be able to get more than two fingers up into the shoulder, so then you know it’s a good fit,” Scanlon said. <\/p>\n
He said it was a great idea to get a lifejacket with a crotch strap to stop you slipping in the water. They are also required on all children’s lifejackets. <\/p>\n
For any vessel 6m long or less, wearing a well fitted lifejacket is mandatory if the recreational craft is “underway”.<\/p>\n
This means a vessel that is not at anchor, made fast to the shore, or aground.<\/p>\n
The requirement applies to recreational craft including motorboats, dinghies, sailboats, kayaks, paddleboards and jet skis, subject to existing exceptions.<\/p>\n
There is an exemption from wearing a lifejacket for surfers, sports events and stand-up paddle board (SUP) surfing.<\/p>\n
Existing requirements to carry enough correctly sized lifejackets, wear them at times of heightened risk and meet skipper safety responsibilities also continue. <\/p>\n
Scanlon hoped the law change would change people’s behaviour, even while out on bigger boats. <\/p>\n
“More than 100 people have died in the last 20\/25 years in New Zealand on bigger vessels while they’re underway because they’ve fallen into the water without a life jacket on. <\/p>\n
“So we would always encourage people, doesn’t matter what size of the craft, to wear a life jacket.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone on board a recreational boat six metres or less in length must wear a properly fitted lifejacket…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-624997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}