PHUKET: Pattaya is planning to adopt the Phuket model to control jet-ski abuses. On Phuket, whether insurance can truly tame the scams will only be revealed this coming high season.

Not since the era of gun-waving ''Jet-Ski JJ'' with rip-offs even being perpetrated on US and British military personnel has there been such interest in Phuket's jet-skis.

It was the filming of Winai ''JJ'' Naiman in action in 2009 in 'Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand' that led to the introduction of a compulsory insurance scheme.

We've seen ''JJ'' in action at Phuket's Patong beach a couple of times since then, mostly in the role of peacemaker - and minus the gun.

As the manager of a jet-ski group, ''JJ'' often steps in because he has better English than most of the operators.

Back in 2011, it was ''JJ'' who helped to calm an angry jet-ski operator who wanted to bloody the faces of two Phuketwan reporters.

The operator was angry because we had happened upon a negotiation with two Australian tourists over two jet-skis they had damaged.

At that time, we only had to go for a stroll along Patong beach any sunny afternoon to find a dispute flaring.

The Australians admitted they had crashed the jet-skis. But the argument was growing heated because the operator and the tourists both had wildly different views on the amount of damage.

This is when a Phuket jet-ski incident is at its most volatile - when there has been real damage, and when the negotiations are taking place on the beach, where the jet-ski operators rule.

We quoted a realistic price to the tourists, suggested they insist on taking the debate to Patong police station, and left. By that time, the angry jet-ski operator was about to explode.

The man who oversees Phuket's jet-skis and their operators, Phuripat Theerakulpisut, Chief of Phuket's Marine Office 5, gave Phuket's honorary consuls a guarantee last month that tourists will no longer have any extra costs to bear.

However, many of the disputes that have come to the attention of honorary consuls have centred not on the damage, but on the time that the jet-skis have to spend out of the water, being repaired.

This ''extra cost'' is not covered by insurance. The standard extra demanded by jet-ski operatorsfor time out of the water is usually 16,000 baht. This represents 1000 baht for ''paperwork,'' plus 3000 baht a day for five days.

Problems have arisen in the past when operators have insisted on being paid the full 16,000 baht when it's plain, the tourists say, that the jet-ski crash involved minor damage that could be fixed in a fraction of that time.

Even the smallest loss of paintwork has in some disputes involved that claim for the extra 16,000 baht.

One idea that the authorities should look at in Pattaya as an alternative to the insurance model is a jet-ski cooperative.

Under this model, all registered jet-ski owners would contribute to a damage repayment fund administered by the jet-ski group itself.

All payouts to jet-ski operators would be approved by the jet-ski group - the people best equipped to determine realistic compensation.

Knowing the scale of the damage, the jet-ski operators would be able to determine how long each repair job will take . . . and also pay their coop members a fair amount for time out of the water.

Until the issue of compensation for time out of the water is resolved, Phuket's Patong beach is likely to continue to be the scene of angry disputes between jet-ski operators and tourists.

By making the jet-ski operators responsible for payouts to other jet-ski operators, the administrative costs of an insurance scheme disappear. The jet-ski operators could expect to pay less.

Any disputes would then be among the jet-ski operators themselves. A simple extra levy on operators to cover the cost of time out of the water would achieve the same aim.

Pattaya authorities should take note.