Harbourmaster

The Hawke's Bay Regional Harbormasters role is to oversee the safety of commercial shipping and recreational boating (including kayaks, paddle boards, dinghies and jet skis etc) who use the region's coast and rivers, from Mahanga in the north, to Porangahau in the south. This role has a huge range and variety; not unlike the various sizes of ships and boats that travel through our waters.

Find out more about the Harbourmaster's role and water safety in our video below.

Events

For Harbourmaster notices about sea or river exclusion zones, click on Event Calendar here.

News

Read this recent article from the Harbourmaster about boating safety.

Here is the Spring 2017 newsletter from the Harbourmaster.

Navigation Safety Bylaws - Review 2017

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is reviewing the Navigation Safety Bylaw that applies to coastal and some river areas. The bylaw covers boating safety, life jacket rules, navigation infrastructure, and maps of activity zones (such as boat ramps and swimming zones).

You can view the draft bylaw here and current bylaw here.

This review goes to Council for final approval in September 2017.

The Harbourmaster's Role

The Harbourmaster promotes the safe and navigable use of the region's waterways by:

Development of Navigation Safety Bylaws in consultation with the community and water users.
Enforcement of the Navigation Safety Bylaws and issuing fines or prosecutions.
Maintaining navigation aids and markers such as buoys, beacons and lights along the coast and within harbour limits
Removing navigation hazards such as large logs and drifting vessels
Disposing of wrecks and derelict vessels
Ensuring compliance with the Navigation Safety Bylaw through enforcement
Maintain maritime signage at boat ramps
HBRC staff, Port staff and Coastguard volunteers are involved in regular oil spill drills to make sure they can respond quickly and effectively using the equipment stored ready for this purpose.
Providing exclusion areas for events such as multisport and boat races so they can be conducted within safe areas
Educating people about navigation and water safety.

Boating and Safety Education

The Harbourmaster is responsible for the successful Safe Boating in Schools programme which is run annually throughout Hawke's Bay at no cost to the schools. This extends to the school holiday and Afcare schemes. If you would like us to bring this interactive and beneficial programme to your school or Afcare centre, please read and complete the registration form or call the Harbourmaster on +6468334525.