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Coastguard’s Kawau unit is looking for 12 volunteers to join its frontline sea rescue service ahead of an induction session they will hold on September 7.
Volunteers work aboard a 10.2m Naiad rescue boat with twin Yanmar jet engines that can accelerate to 30 knots in 12 seconds ,with a top speed of 34 knots.
The Coastguard’s rescue service is all that stands between boaties being stranded on the water with little hope of finding a way to shore, with some cases being life or death situations.
Volunteer Paul Steinkamp says most jobs involve assisting boaties whose engines have failed, but the crew recently rescued a man who had fallen overboard and had been in the water for three hours.
“We were searching at night in 15 knot winds. He was hypothermic when we found him and it was very lucky we got to him,” he says.
To sign up for the Kawau Coastguard you have to live within 20 minutes’ drive of Sandspit and be available evenings and a full weekend for one week out of three.
“During your duty week, you can’t go to Silverdale for shopping and there is no drinking,” Paul says.
There is a significant pool of volunteers to organise cover with in advance if you have other commitments during a duty week.
The Kawau rescue currently has three crews that are on rotation, but Paul says being able to establish a fourth crew with more volunteers would make the role even more manageable.
“We are looking to get a single group of 12 together now so that they can go through the induction and training together and have that team camaraderie.”
After an induction course, new crew members will get to know the basics of the rescue service before taking an assessment and achieving operational status after about a year.
Trainee and operational crew are taught a wide range of maritime skills by Coastguard, including reading charts, finding position, plotting courses, choosing search patterns, VHF radio use, safely towing vessels, and, of course, maintaining a heading on a boat.
After some years, volunteers can then work themselves up to senior status and finally to skipper, which requires training in maritime law.
A volunteer might average 125 hours on the water in a year with the Kawau Coastguard, which attended 106 callouts last year.
In the summer, the Coastguard is likely to get several callouts in a weekend, but during the winter they might only get two to three callouts a month.
Volunteer Katie Williamson says she joined Coastguard three or four years ago after seeing the crew selling raffle tickets, and she has never looked back.
She says it is incredibly satisfying work to help people who would otherwise be stuck on the water until a passerby was able to rescue them.
Those interested in joining the Coastguards’ rescue efforts, or even helping the ‘dry crew’ with fundraising, should contact luke.mccarthy@coastguard.org.nz.
Katie Williamson navigates with Skipper Brett Howlett.
