My Account
How often do you see those white and orange boats on the water and ask yourself, ‘I wonder what that’s all about?’ Well, here’s an insight into Coastguard Hibiscus.
Our unit was formed many years ago as the Hibiscus Sea Rescue Trust and although we are now part of Coastguard Northern region, the Trust still exists in an administrative function. Coastguard Hibiscus is a registered charity dedicated to saving lives at sea; we are made up of about 50 ‘wet crew’ who are trained to man our two Coastguard Rescue Vessels (CRVs), and five shore crew who assist with administrative tasks, events and fundraising.
All crew are unpaid volunteers who train and respond to incidents in their spare time and thoroughly enjoy what we do. We come from various backgrounds such as engineering, finance, business owners, teachers, nurses, Mums and Dads, retirees and students.
There are varying levels of boating experience among the volunteers: some have been around boats their whole lives, others are occasional fishers and some, like me, had almost no experience before joining the unit. No matter what the experience before joining, we all go through a rigorous training schedule both in the classroom and out on the vessels.
Our main CRV, Hibiscus Rescue 1, is located at Gulf Harbour and is a 9.5m Naiad running twin 250-hp Yamaha outboard motors. She holds 650 litres of fuel and is capable of 42 knots. Our second CRV is a 7.7m amphibious Sealegs located at our shed in Stanmore Bay. She runs a single 200-hp Yamaha outboard, but is versatile having the ability to launch and land on practically any beach or ramp. We can drive her into the sea, lift the wheels and respond to any request.
Both vessels are equipped with a range of specialised equipment such as navigation plotters, radar, vhf, first aid equipment, spotlights, FLIR (infrared), night sights, jump packs, towlines and tools.
Over summer our CRVs are on the water most days where we can attend to breakdowns, tow stranded vessels, attend medical events, search for missing people and assist police, the Harbourmaster or even the Department of Conservation.
We often deal with multiple situations during a shift and can find ourselves on the water for an extended period of time. As such, we carry a vast array of supplies like muesli bars, water and of course the essential sweets and chocolates, and also find good coffee stops where possible.
If you’d like to support your local unit, there are a couple of ways in which you can do so. If you’re a Coastguard member, when you renew your membership, you can choose to nominate a local unit. If you nominate Hibiscus, we receive a percentage of your membership fee. Additionally, every summer, you will see our guys and girls out there selling tickets for the Coastguard lottery; if you buy your tickets directly from us, we also get a cut! Thanks for your support and see you on the water.
