Four new amendments have been made to the Special Regulations and will come into effect on the 1st November 2025. The amendments do not require a major change for boat owners.

The four amendments are:

• Removing the outdated life jacket standards in both Part 1 and Part 2 of the Special Regulations, this is simply an administrative amendment.
• Removing the need to carry white flares on board, white flares are an anticollision flare, the need for which has been surpassed by AIS technology.
• An amendment to the wording around Satellite phones and their capabilities has opened up the type of satellite phone required and allows for new and emerging technologies to be used.
• Boats competing in category 7 races will now be required to carry VHF radio, this was one of the recommendations from the Sydney Harbour Twilight incident which found the use of VHF channel 16 was instrumental in the emergency services’ response.

The Amendments and Special Regulations can be found on the Special Regulations page of the Safety Hub of the AS website.

The updated equipment auditing forms can be found on the Equipment Auditing page of the Safety Hub.

By Melanie Peasey