Surf Talk host, Ross Smith, is joined by Boat Licence trainer, Stu Ferenci, to discuss all things boating and fishing, including how you can secure your boat licence through the SA Boat Licence course run by Surf Life Saving SA.
This episode is sponsored by Australian Maritime & Fisheries Academy.
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Description text Ross Smith:
00:00-00:34
Hi I'm Ross Smith and welcome to Surf Talk, Surf Lifesaving South Australia's podcast. You may not know but Surf Lifesaving run the SA boat license training courses and also we have testing with that as well. So today's special guest is Stu Ferenczi and Stu's going to talk about the boat license course. But before we start on that our sponsors today is the Australian Maritime and Fisheries Academy and you'll hear a bit more about them later. Stu it's so good to have you here mate thank you for coming.
Stu Ferenci:
00:34-00:38
Thanks for having me Ross.
Ross Smith:
00:34-00:42
No worries just a few things about you Stu let people know why you got into boating and you know.
Stu Ferenci:
00:34-00:42
Where do I start?
Ross Smith:
00:34-00:42
Where do you start?
Stu Ferenci:
00:42-00:46
Looking out the window here today I should be out on the water.
Ross Smith:
00:42-00:51
It's beautiful out there isn't it?
Stu Ferenci:
00:46-01:09
It's a cracker yeah it's a beautiful day. So I was born and bred with boating and fishing in my blood. Port Broughton Fisherman's Bay we had a shack there. So I grew up on the boats and as a young kid fishing there with dad from the very early ages of sort of two three years old probably even earlier.
Ross Smith:
01:04-01:09
Seriously?
Stu Ferenci:
01:04-01:23
Yep yep and that progressed. From there we had some shacks and stuff and some places down at Corny Point, Marion Bay and then I sort of shipped off to boarding school and then we as a family mum and dad bought a house in Portnalunga. Beautiful part of the world before it started to boom now.
Ross Smith:
01:23-01:27
Yeah
Stu Ferenci:
01:23-01:40
And throughout that whole time you know we've had family boats and stuff and always just been fishing. Bit of a footballer as well and then when my sort of footy career you know I always had the ambition to play at a really high level and make AFL and stuff and like I played a bit with SAFL at Glenelg.
Ross Smith:
01:40-01:44
Oh wow.
Stu Ferenci:
01:40-02:07
When it started to go "Okay I'm not gonna you know that's not going to be a career for me what else can I do?" I'd worked in a local community rec centre as a kid. I really wanted to work around just pools and recreation centres and gyms but also fishing. So yeah I got into that side of it from a career and work perspective and then you know started buying my own boats. Had a jet ski there for a little while. They're a lot of fun jet skis.
Ross Smith:
02:02-02:07
Oh yeah. A lot of fun
Stu Ferenci:
02:07-02:14
And then you know did all the water sports of the river but my true love and passion was fishing.
Ross Smith:
02:10-02:18
So what's your qualification Stuart? Are you just a recreational boat license qualification or you've got more?
Stu Ferenci:
02:14-03:56
Yeah I've got more than that. Probably in the last 10 years like I grew up on your bread and butter stuff in South Australia which is your whiting, your snapper, your garfish, blue swimmer crabs, you know all your delicious tasty seafood. All the stuff that you know you grow up on as a kid here in SA's waters. And in the last 10 years I really got into my game fishing. And then as that progressed and my love affair for that progressed I became friends and mates with you know a few people in the industry and one guy Tommy from Go Get Them Fishing Charters. We were always fishing. I was fishing in my rec boat down at Victor and he was you know in his charter boat. And then he said oh if you ever want a bit of work you know on weekends and things like that just let me know. And I thought oh yeah might as well. And again just being on a boat and fishing and loving it. So then I did that and then you know he he won't mind me saying this but he is not getting any younger. And also he's got three beautiful girls. None of them really interested in taking over the family business of fishing. So for me it was like we had a conversation and I went and got my commercial ticket my Coxsons license. And you know in 10 years, 15 years, 20 years time you know the plan is for hopefully one day I can you know still do our boat license stuff here. And also you know you've got a charter organization sort of on the side. So I do the commercial side of it as well. So you run trips out and fishing trips and the like. Two charters out of West Beach here and Encounter Bay. All just fishing charters. So you know I haven't driven any commercial ships or anything like that. But you know they're just bigger sort of commercial boats really. Still got outboard engines and stuff on them. So just bigger trailer boats.
Ross Smith:
03:53-04:00
So clearly passionate about anything boating, fishing.
Stu Ferenci:
03:56-04:00
Yep.
Ross Smith:
03:56-04:08
And you look at statistics. Australia's number one activity, leisure activity, is on water, in water or around water. It's number one. Whether it's all over the world.
Stu Ferenci:
04:05-04:08
Yeah I didn't know that.
Ross Smith:
04:05-04:25
Yeah it's number one. So not a wonder our boat license course here at Surf Lifesaving South Australia is you know massive. We have big numbers every time. Yeah. Who needs a boat license course? I mean we offer them here and I don't fully understand who needs them. So if you can tell our listeners would be fantastic.
Stu Ferenci:
04:21-04:42
So in South Australia if you're going to operate a boat you need a boat license. We're not as lucky as other states. So I'm a former footballer as I mentioned before. I used to play a bit in Darwin. Northern Territory no boat license and no blood alcohol limit on a boat.
Ross Smith:
04:38-04:42
Wow.
Stu Ferenci:
04:38-04:58
So footy trips were a lot of fun up there as you could imagine. But here in South Australia we're pretty lucky. Like we can do you know one of our courses, do a bit of a theory. You can actually just walk in off the street and sit your test at Surf Lifesaving South Australia and if you pass it you get your boat license. I don't recommend doing that obviously.
Ross Smith:
04:54-05:05
It's a bit like a learner's permit is it? Where if you go for your driver's learner's permit, if you fail you got to pay again and fail and pay again and if you let you, you got them all, all the questions asked.
Stu Ferenci:
05:05-05:42
Yeah. So again for us if you want to operate a boat in South Australia that has an engine you know jet ski even. So our license allows us to operate boats and jet skis. We don't have a separate license we just have the one. You have to be licensed. You can operate a boat under a few certain circumstances if you don't have a license but on that vessel there still actually has to be someone holding the license. So you know if you're over a certain age and they do have a speed limit restriction and things like that but it has to be a licensed person on the boat. So really if you're going to operate a boat or a jet ski in SA you have to be licensed.
Ross Smith:
05:42-05:47
So what size crafts? I can't go out and drive a ship or whatever you call it.
Stu Ferenci:
05:47-05:48
Funny you mention that.
Ross Smith:
05:48-05:49
What can I do? What can I do?
Stu Ferenci:
05:49-05:59
Funny you mention that. We actually, we don't have a restriction. So there's no L plates, there's no P plates. You don't have a size restriction, you don't have a horsepower restriction.
Ross Smith:
05:58-05:59
Seriously?
Stu Ferenci:
05:59-06:19
On a full license, yeah. On a recreational license. So on my commercial license I have a size restriction, I have a distance restriction and how many people I'm allowed to take out on board to X nautical miles. If I take that commercial license off and I'm recreational I'm unlimited. Unlimited horsepower, unlimited size restrictions.
Ross Smith:
06:19-06:35
But of course we are promoting basically that people don't go out and just jump on a ship and be a captain. It's all about recreationalism at the end of the day. So people that, for our listeners that don't know, people that other water sports like sailing and canoeing, do they need a license?
Stu Ferenci:
06:35-06:54
Not for a sailing boat. If the boat has an engine, you do. But sailing boats, kayaks, stand up paddle boards, that unpowered craft, you don't actually need a license for. But if you've got a boat with an engine on it or a jet ski, you need one. So if you've got a sailing boat with an engine, you're going to need that license to operate it.
Ross Smith:
06:54-07:02
So let's drill into the course a little bit. What's it cover? What's the contents? How long does it go for? What do people have to expect when they come into Surf Lifesaving South Australia?
Stu Ferenci:
07:02-07:41
So everything I teach and everything we teach is straight out of the SA Boating Safety Handbook, which tells us all of our laws, all of our legislations, all of our policies. Now that's readily available. That's free for all of us. So everything that's in that around all your safety, all your different policies, all your legislations, that's what we teach in our course. So our course goes through that, not in too much detail that it's too much to absorb and you can't understand it because it'd be an overflow of information, but it's simple enough and effective enough that we cover off all the major parts highlighted in that SA Boating Safety Handbook.
Ross Smith:
07:41-07:47
So there's a strong emphasis on safety and managing your craft out there in a safe and responsible manner.
Stu Ferenci:
07:47-07:48
Yep, absolutely.
Ross Smith:
07:48-07:56
And the sort of equipment you need. I mean, that's really important. They're always being updated, aren't they? That sort of thing with life jackets and flares and radios and the like.
Stu Ferenci:
07:56-08:39
Yeah, for sure. And so there's a few different policies and stuff. And look, the government's always looking to better it and improve it, which we're in full support of. But when it comes down to it, the safety equipment that we need when you're looking at it and like the activity, what you're doing on the water is sort of the bare minimum. You know, having things like a fire extinguisher, an anchor, a torch, some life jackets or flares. It's all pretty basic stuff, you know, even having a radio. But there are still people out there who don't have all the required safety equipment and they should. So we educate people in our courses that this is the stuff you need. We take about two hours to two and a half hours of theory and then they have sort of half hours, you know, 40 minutes it takes them to do their exam.
Ross Smith:
08:39-08:47
And I mean, with your experience, you sort of bring it to life as well. You can give some examples, you know, in boating and you can sort of say, well, this is really important, but however.
Stu Ferenci:
08:47-08:48
Yeah.
Ross Smith:
08:48-08:52
So what age can we train at Surf Lifesaving South Australia? What can we do here?
Stu Ferenci:
08:52-09:16
Legally you've got to be 16 years of age. Okay. There is a special permit for kids between 12 and 15. Currently they're just through services SA. Now we're working on that with government given, you know, my knowledge, expertise, et cetera. And also the fact I've got the commercial license, so I could legally take people out on the water. But at the moment we just deliver the full course, which is for people aged 16 and over.
Ross Smith:
09:16-09:28
So at the end it has a multi-choice test and they have to get a percentage to get that correct. So what's the percentage they have to get? And second question is, what do they do after they get a certificate from us saying they've passed the course?
Stu Ferenci:
09:28-10:14
So overall we've got a really strong success rate. People pick it up really good. I like to think I know what I'm talking about, but also people understand it and look, it's all safety. So it's a little bit hard to keep people engaged, right? But I try in the short window we have, I try and keep it fun, as light hearted, as engaging as possible. But we have a high success rate, you know, probably sort of 90, 95% of people that attend our course pass. There is a little bit of give and leeway. You need 80% to pass your boat license. I think we have 54 questions, so you need 43, 44 in total. And that includes a compulsory eight. So there's a compulsory eight questions around your give way, you know, blood alcohol limit, a certain speed limit around a person in the water, things like that.
Ross Smith:
10:14-10:21
Like your normal license, like when you go off your learner's permit to drive a vehicle, you have a certain amount of questions which are mandated. You must get them correct.
Stu Ferenci:
10:21-11:02
Yeah. And as the trainer, I'm always there to help. It's a lot of information intake. You know, some people are there with friends or family. They may sort of ask one of them a question or something. They may also come to me. And nine times out of 10, they actually know the answer. They're just seeking that last little bit of guidance. And obviously we want people to be safe on the water. So we're not going to be, you know, against helping them. You know, we're trying to educate people and get them to learn. And, you know, a couple of the big things I really stress is, you know, there's a safety equipment checklist. There's a sort of a one page or a two page in that SA Boating Safety Handbook. I encourage everyone that does my course, print it out, put it in your car, put it in your boat.
Ross Smith:
11:02-11:03
Do that check.
Stu Ferenci:
11:03-11:29
Do that check. And I still do this, you know, and I've been on the water since I was three, but make sure before you go out, you've checked that your flares are in date. You've got your flares on board. You've got the right life jackets, all those sorts of things, because you don't want to get down to the water and Marine Safety are there and they're just doing their job. But they're going to say, well, your flares aren't in date. You can't actually launch them. You know, so it's really important. And Marine Safety are doing a great job. They've started to release some QR codes as well.
Ross Smith:
11:29-11:30
Oh, fantastic.
Stu Ferenci:
11:30-11:32
Where you can now stick them on your boat or just stick them somewhere.
Ross Smith:
11:32-11:33
And that gives you the resources.
Stu Ferenci:
11:33-11:42
And you can, yeah, just a resource. You can just scan your code and it'll tell you which life jacket you need. It'll tell you what your safety equipment you need. So we're going to start handing those out in our boat license courses as well.
Ross Smith:
11:42-11:49
Yeah, that's great. Anything that can keep people safe on the water is important, I guess. So when they get their certificate, do they go into Services SA?
Stu Ferenci:
11:49-12:06
Yep. So they'll do their course with us. We're also an approved provider. They'll get emailed out a certificate of completion attainment. They print that off and then you take that into Services SA and then they basically exchange it on the spot. So they'll exchange that certificate and issue out the boat license.
Ross Smith:
12:06-12:08
No worries. So where do we run them, Stu?
Stu Ferenci:
12:08-12:16
So we run them all across the state. So as you know, you and I were just at the boat show and we did, I can't remember the numbers, about 120, 130, I think.
Ross Smith:
12:16-12:26
Yeah, about 130 people come through. It's an amazingly popular course. But as I said earlier, I think that recreational thing around water, so many people love water in Australia.
Stu Ferenci:
12:26-13:06
And I think too, we're a not-for-profit charitable organization, so we're able to do it. I'm highly qualified and experienced in it, but also we're able to do it at an affordable rate, which people actually love. We've got a cost of living crisis at the moment. But yeah, so we did the boat show. So we did the boat show, the caravan show every year. We have them here at West Beach in winter, maybe once or twice a month. In summer, pretty much every week, we're running boat license courses here at Surf Life Saving HQ. But then all across the state. And we're happy to go anywhere, really. As long as the demand's there, it covers our costs. So I think we've got the Riverland coming up next week. So I'll be at Murray Bridge and Berry.
Ross Smith:
13:06-13:07
So inland water as well, that's great.
Stu Ferenci:
13:07-13:32
Yeah, we do the river. Then we're heading out to York Peninsula, so Port Vincent. Then I've gone down the southeast, so Mount Gambier, Beachport, that area, and then the Eyre Peninsula, so Wyala, Port Augusta, Port Lincoln. And then yeah, we try and do some at our other Surf Life Saving Clubs. So I think I've got one at Port Elliot. Some out north, so like Engle Farm Rec Center. So we're doing some out there.
Ross Smith:
13:32-13:34
So you're making it really accessible for people.
Stu Ferenci:
13:34-13:35
Yeah, 100%.
Ross Smith:
13:35-13:36
Yeah, that's great.
Stu Ferenci:
13:36-14:01
Yeah, as long as we've got, whether it's a pool, a rec center, a Surf Life Saving Club, we can pretty much run them anywhere. And a lot of schools too. I think I've been up to Peterborough too once before. So yeah, we'll go. And there might not be as much water, but all those places, even places like where I grew up in Rocksby Downs, we had the shack at Port Broughton Fisherman's Bay, and that's where I grew up. But we worked in the mining town, but a lot of those people and places, they have shacks and stuff.
Ross Smith:
14:01-14:02
And they come down on weekends.
Stu Ferenci:
14:02-14:11
They come down on weekends, on school holidays, all of those things on there. They're usually a week on, week off rosters, things like that. We can go down there and do a boat license course too.
Ross Smith:
14:11-14:20
Fantastic. Stu, before we go on, we're just going to have a short break. We're going to hear from our sponsor, the Australian Maritime and Fisheries Academy, and then we'll get back and ask you some more questions.
Stu Ferenci:
14:20-14:21
Beautiful.
Sponsor Message:
14:22-15:31
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Ross Smith:
15:31-15:42
All right, welcome back, Stu. Thanks for our sponsor for that bit of information. If anyone wants to know about boat licence courses, where can they go to our website or let people know what it is?
Stu Ferenci:
15:42-16:04
Of course, they give us a call, and that'll either come through to myself or our team, the commercial team. Otherwise, there's information on our website, so there's bits and pieces about there about what we cover off on our course, all the different course dates, so that's how people book in. They just enrol through the website and obviously pick which course is most suitable for them, closest to their home and most convenient.
Ross Smith:
16:04-16:09
And that's surflifesavingsa.com.au forward slash courses?
Stu Ferenci:
16:09-16:22
Yeah, yeah, and then you've got a few different choices. Select down, we've got first aid, we do pool lifeguard, we do a range of courses. Select boat licence, it'll bring up a table and it'll bring up all the different courses. I think there's about 15 or 20 up there at the moment for our summer period.
Ross Smith:
16:22-16:24
Wow, that's a lot of courses.
Stu Ferenci:
16:24-16:25
Yeah, yeah.
Ross Smith:
16:25-16:31
So here's a question I've got written down, Stu. What are some of the best practices for boating in different weather, for example?
Stu Ferenci:
16:31-16:51
Yeah, it's interesting. It really depends on your boat size and also your experience as well. And I try and educate this in my courses. So you might have a day, for example, you might want to get into your offshore fishing. So you might have a day of zero to five knots of wind and it's 30 degrees and you're thinking, oh, this is bloody beautiful.
Ross Smith:
16:51-16:52
Yeah, I'm going out.
Stu Ferenci:
16:52-17:17
Going out. But when you're talking offshore, you've got swell that you've got to contend with. And down in Victor Harbour, where I live and the bottom of York Peninsula and Port Lincoln, all those exposed areas in unprotected waters, you might have a day where that forecast is zero to five knots and there's no wind. But you get down there and there's not really any boats out and there's massive waves because you've got five metres, 10 metres of swell to contend with.
Ross Smith:
17:17-17:22
So the difference between when you launch, the difference you get out in the open water can be significantly different.
Stu Ferenci:
17:22-18:24
Yeah, absolutely. So it's a bit of that, but it's also like I'm going up to the Eyre Peninsula soon and you've got a concentrated area. There's the annual run of yellowtail kingfish up there and it can be blowing 30 to 40 knots, which is really rough. But because of the area you're in, you can actually still go out because it's semi-protected is what it's classed as, but it's actually quite protected in those waters that it can be quite windy, but it's a real concentrated area. So it does vary a little bit on your experience, your boat size, your courage as well. But as a general guide and a general rule of thumb, anything above 20 knots, you're probably thinking not today, whether it's water sports in the river because it's going to be quite bouncy for the skis and stuff, or in the ocean, anything above 20 knots. If it's 10 to 15 knots, probably 50-50. Anything below 10 knots, in the industry we just call variable winds. You're going to be quite safe wherever you go. 10 to 15, you're still going to be safe. It's not going to be unsafe at 10 to 15 knots, but it's just going to be a bit bumpy.
Ross Smith:
18:24-18:26
I suppose get to know your weather.
Stu Ferenci:
18:26-18:43
For this day and age, you've got 10 or so smartphone apps I could lift off the top of my head, TV, radio, newspapers, whatever you get your weather, but your smartphone apps are the easiest. You've got BOM Weather, you've got Boy Weather, Willy Weather, Windfinder, Windy. These are all just apps.
Ross Smith:
18:43-18:44
Plenty of resources there.
Stu Ferenci:
18:44-18:45
Plenty of resources.
Stu Ferenci:
18:45-18:47
So make sure you check them. Just don't go blind.
Stu Ferenci:
18:47-18:48
Check them always.
Ross Smith:
18:48-18:52
It can be 30 degrees now, sunny, flat, and then you go out and as you head out further, it can be quite windy offshore.
Ross Smith:
18:53-18:59
I suppose off the cuff question, what's the craziest thing you've ever seen when you've been out on a boat?
Stu Ferenci:
18:59-19:18
I've seen quite a few. I used to surf a little bit, but once you sort of get into the commercial side, it's a little bit eye-opening. So like I've been off the bluff, you know, just sort of a K off the bluff in an afternoon and we've had a school of tuna come up and fighting fish and then you've seen like a hundred sharks come out of nowhere just in a feeding frenzy.
Ross Smith:
19:18-19:19
Wow.
Stu Ferenci:
19:19-19:29
Just like a kilometre off the bluff, bronze whalers, great whites, all sorts. And you've got customers who are like absolutely loving it, but you can't get a tuna into the boat because it's getting bit in half by a shark.
Ross Smith:
19:29-19:30
That's crazy.
Ross Smith:
19:30-20:39
I've been out in other situations where we knew there was a big swell, you know, and everyone's human and everyone makes mistakes and I'm not immune to any of that, but we've been out, you know, big swells and on the tuna, places called Wedge Island, which is out near the Neptune's Island where they do the shark diving. And we knew the swell was big, but we're all right. We can't get on top of the shoal because the shoals where it's from deep water goes from sort of, you know, 80 odd metres, 180 metres up to sort of 20, 30 metres. So it comes up shallow when the swell is big, the waves are obviously going to break over that. And on this particular day, my mate was a bit seedy as we hung over and he was in the cab of the boat and I've seen the birds working and the tuna were in this particular spot. I've just driven straight over to it, didn't look at my sounder. And I was like, geez, that wave's massive and it's standing up a little bit. And then I looked down and I was right on the edge of the shoal. So I've gone from sort of 80 odd metres staying away from it, just like 30, 40 metres. And we hooked up on a fish and I've just flipped the bail arm over and just let it spool itself out. And I've just gunned it out of there. And then sort of we turned back and looked like this wave was just breaking behind us. It would have been 60, 70 foot this way.
Ross Smith:
20:39-20:40
Oh my God.
Stu Ferenci:
20:40-20:44
So yeah, you've got to be careful, but you've got to be careful.
Ross Smith:
20:44-20:45
You do.
Stu Ferenci:
20:45-21:30
So probably, yeah, that massive feeding school of sharks off the bluff, you know, some really big swells I've seen and been out in. And then there's a few juvenile great whites who follow up the school of kingfish and not myself. Thankfully I haven't seen them. I've seen them on equipment like fish finders and down scans and side scans, but I've seen footage of mates and stuff where the kingfish are getting caught and the sharks have figured out that that's when it's time to go for them. And there's been footage and stuff of sharks breaching boat side, eating these kingfish like they're highly aggressive, taking down rig of bombs and stuff like that and baits. And yeah, it's hectic.
Ross Smith:
21:30-22:02
I can see you're incredibly passionate about this and particularly the fishing side of it. So yeah, if anyone wants to get their boat licence, you know, get onto our website surflifesavingsa.com.au forward slash boat licence or forward slash courses and they'll be able to see there and navigate their way around. Ring Surf HQ 83546900. And it's been really enlightening to listen to your stories. Fantastic, mate. Look, appreciate it. Stu, once again, that's been great information. Like I said, boat licence, it's a great course. I appreciate you being at Surf Talk.
Stu Ferenci:
22:02-22:04
No worries, Ross. Thanks. Anytime.
Ross Smith:
22:04-22:27
As I said earlier, we've got 10 episodes of Surf Talk. So please keep listening. If you like what you heard, please subscribe to our feed and pass it on and share the information or link to anyone if you can, because we really appreciate your listening and hope there's some information there today that you learned something about boat licence course and we'll learn more in the future. So I'm Ross Smith and this is Surf Talk and get involved. Thank you.goes here