What would the proposed changes mean?

Similar distances,but different travel times — what’s ‘right’? The Speed and Behaviour Management Strategy recommends changes intended to reduce the effects of vessel wash and, where possible, preserve or improve travel times. The analysis below highlights some effects of the proposed changes.

The Coomera River (Sanctuary Cove to the Broadwater) is about the same length as the Nerang River (Southport-Burleigh Rd bridge to the Broadwater), but travel times vary considerably for small and large vessels, under either the current or proposed rules, as shown in the table below.

For ‘small’ vessels (<8m), the 7km trip on the Coomera takes twice as long (16 vs 32 minutes) as a similar trip on the Nerang, based on the current speed limits. Under the proposed rules the trip on the Coomera River would be cut by 75% — from 32 to 9 minutes. Travel time on the Nerang wouldn’t actually change,* except for those in a vessel between 6.5m and 8m, who would see their trip time doubled.

Fair or unfair?.

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The consultation is scheduled to close 21 November 2016

What are you waiting for?

The above analysis assumes that vessels travel at the maximum allowed speed. Smaller vessels with a top speed of less than 40-knots would have longer travel times under the current rules than the times shown above. As such, they will actually see some reduction in travel times due to the proposed change of some 6-knot areas to the variable speed limit. If you’d like a copy of the spreadsheet used to generate the table above, send us an email.