New Safety Rules to Be Imposed at Mission Bay

For 30 summers, Mission Beach resident Bart Sayer has boated and rowed at Mission Bay without incident--except for several minor confrontations between buoys and his rowing scull.

For thousands of San Diegans and visitors who each summer use the 2,300-acre bay, accidents on the water are a rarity. But lifeguards, concerned particularly with an influx of Jet skis and power boats, worry that such luck won’t last.

Prompted by near-collisions and conflicts between rowers, sailors, skiers and boaters, and engulfed by public outcry over a Jet-ski mishap last September in which a 10-year-old boy died, Mission Bay authorities this summer will crack down with existing rules and put into practice several new regulations intended to ensure water safety.

They hope to enact most of the changes by the end of this month, when summer water activities are under way. But they also vow to preserve the area’s uninhibited, recreational atmosphere that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each summer to its 27 miles of shoreline and the water within.

‘It’s a Balancing Act, Clearly’

“Our philosophy is to try to make it as safe as possible without making it so regulated that it is impossible to use,” said San Diego Lifeguard Capt. Chris Brewster. “It’s a balancing act, clearly.”

The plan, a consensus of ideas by a group of Mission Bay water users that advised officials on boating safety, may turn what may have been an aquatic autobahn in some areas into a well-run water freeway. Among the changes:

* A slow-speed ring, consisting of a 5-m.p.h. boundary 100 feet from shore, will be established around the entire bay. Another ring will be created around water skiing areas, where boaters and swimmers would be banned within 200 feet of landing and takeoff ramps.

* Two under-utilized ramps west of Fiesta Island and another on eastern Sail Bay will be removed. Water-skiers will be left with four ramps--at Ski Beach, Santa Clara point, Crown Point and an area south of De Anza point.

* Jet skiers will be encouraged to use the east side of Fiesta Bay. Also, a new Jet ski zone will be created north of the entrance to Fiesta Island, although rowers will have access to the area before 9 a.m.

* Rowers will have most of western Mission Bay and other areas, while Sail Bay will remain a key area for sailboats.

Other previously existing rules, such as those outlawing wake-jumping by water and jet skiers who closely follow other boats, will be more strictly enforced.

The citizens’ group’s top priority, however, probably won’t be realized. Bay users wanted to increase the number of lifeguards and patrol boats to both educate visitors about water safety and to enforce the rules. But the city’s tight budget probably can’t finance that goal, Brewster said.

Officials will try to counter a shortage of enforcement personnel with a barrage of information. Signs listing old and new safety rules will be posted, and thousands of pamphlets explaining them will be distributed throughout the bay area.

But, Brewster stressed, those who break the rules will be prosecuted. Violations of Mission Bay regulations are misdemeanors.

Last summer, roughly 700 violations at the bay were cited by lifeguards and the San Diego Police Department’s harbor patrol, the lifeguard captain estimated.

“If there is proper notification of the rules, what we’ve found is that 90% to 95% of the people will become aware of the laws and adhere to them,” he said.

Better enforcement of old and new safety regulations won’t suffocate the freedom and recreational liberties sought by visitors there, several Mission Bay users said.

“There still are places people can go at top speed in the bay, they just have to go to the right places,” said Glen Brandenburg, the director of the Mission Bay Aquatic Center and a user of the bay since 1962. “Now people are going to have to be informed of the rules and be courteous to other boaters. Most close calls come from people who aren’t properly educated or trained.”

Rich Gleason was a Mission Bay lifeguard and harbor patrolman in the mid-1970s. For 25 years he has raced, skied, rowed, sailed and swum in the bay waters. Today, as owner of the Mission Bay Sports Center near Santa Clara point, he helps others do the same.

“There’s more regulation now than ever before,” said Gleason, 37. “But then, there’s more need for regulation now. It’s really surprising how few accidents there have been. But they are increasing, and that’s what’s worrisome.” A fatal water accident last fall put water safety on the bay into the public eye. Thomas Ready of Mission Beach was fatally injured when, riding a water scooter between Fiesta Island and Crown Point Shores, he hit a ski towrope and broke his neck.

“The users of the bay are concerned about water safety, as they should be,” said Sayer, 60, president of the Mission Beach Rowing Assn. “Hopefully, some of these new regulations can eliminate that sort of tragedy but at the same time not hamper the relatively free use of the bay by everyone.”