Calling for crew

A day out crewing on Hibiscus Rescue One or 2 will typically start with either an early morning callout or with an arranged training session on the water. Callouts can vary from a duty crew turning out for a non-urgent ‘pageout’, such as a vessel broken down and needing a tow, to all available crew turning out in a hurry for an urgent callout such as an EPIRB activation, boatfire, sinking or medical situation, in which case the first four or five crew to arrive at the boat usually go out.

At weekends we train on the water for either a half or a full day on Saturday and Sunday while still remaining available for tasking by Coastguard Operations at Mechanics Bay. We carry out search pattern training, practice boat handling, carry out man overboard exercises, fire drills, and practice medical scenarios to keep everybody sharp. We practice towing with either our other boat or join up with another Coastguard unit for towing and barging practice.

Thursday nights involve night training around Whangaparaoa with one or both of our boats – a good chance for us to hone our radar operating skills and carry out training on night searches. New crew quickly discover that searching for a boat or people in the water with radar and searchlights at night is quite different to searching in daylight when things are much easier to spot with the naked eye and binoculars, aided by radar. Add some choppy water and bad weather and objects become even harder to spot in the dark. Knowing different lights and their flashing sequences and particularly the local ones such as Tiri light is crucial. It also helps you spot anything unusual, like someone flashing a torch in need of assistance.

Crew follow a module training system and have to get written tests and practical exercises signed off for the different crew levels on all the main tasks expected of us as rescue vessel crew as well as holding a Boatmaster’s Certificate, Marine VHF radio operator licence, and keeping SAR Medic certificates current.

Coastguard Hibiscus is looking for new crew. If interested contact our recruitment officer David Bradley on recruitment@hibiscus.org.nz or phone 021 175 6066.