Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard

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Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard

Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard is one of 71 Coastguard units operating around the coastline of New Zealand.

Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard is one of 71 Coastguard units operating around the coastline of New Zealand and one of the 18 units comprising Coastguard Eastern Region. We have 75 active volunteers including radio operators, rescue crew and committee. Our rescue vessel is an 8.5m Naiad powered by twin Yamaha 225hp fourstroke outboard engines. Top speed is in excess of 40 knots and she has a range of 200 Nautical miles and is on 24 hour callout standby

28/05/2026

No exciting news to report, which has to be a good thing as it means all the local boaties aren't have mechanical or fuel issues.

A big thank you to all our supporters who brought tickets in our summer raffle and to all our volunteer ticket sellers. We can report that along with the whakatane unit we were first equal in selling 3000 tickets.

A little CRV news. We have just completed installation of a new FLIR camera unit on the boat replacing the old fitting .
FLIR is an infrared camera system used to identify objects, (people or boats) in otherwise pitch black conditions. Along with all new technology it is controlled by a joystick allowing 360⁰ rotation, up, down, and zoom functions. As with any top shelf state of the art technology it was not a cheap upgrade so thanks again to all our supporters.

Attached pic is a photo of the screen in daylight mode taken during testing. With full zoom you could count the rivets on the canopy of the ute outside the door.

25/04/2026

Something a little different from tasking or training. At our lovely seaside town the Anzac day dawn parade is held on the beach in front of the Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club and our CRV is part of the formalities.
G J Gardner Rescue and two surf club inflatables hide behind Clarke Is untill the first glimpse of the sun and the the CRV carrying a NZ and Australian flag proceed toward the beach in company of the inflatables. The flags are handed over to the surf crew who bring them ashore and then on the beach hand them to the head girl and boy of the Area School to carry them up the beach to the main formalities.
A contingent of crew and exec staff also march in the civic parade later in the morning along with the Veterans. Police, Fire, Ambulance and other service groups

03/04/2026

Something a little different.
Thanks to the Whangamata Volunteer Fire Brigade for hosting Coastguard Crew for a tutorial and hands on training in the use of Fire Extinguishers. Yes point and sq**rt will work but like everything else there is a bit of technique involved.
We carry 3 Dry Powder Extinguishers on the rescue vessel which are a good general purpose fast first strike extinguisher for most fires except cooking oils and fats.
Foam has limitations on gases and electrical fires and as we saw CO² is ineffective on large outdoor fires.
Fires need HEAT OXYGEN and FUEL, so the objective is to remove one of these elements and combustion will stop. Water is used in a house fire to eliminate heat, on a small/medium boat Powder or Foam smothers the fire starving it of oxygen. CO² works in a similar way and best in a enclosed engine room.
Our fires were a mix of diesel and petrol on top of water in a half 44 gallon drum that burnt at 500⁰C.
The correct operation of the extinguisher is
-Pull the pin
-Test sq**rt the extinguisher
-Aim the nozzle at base of the fire
-Squeeze the handles and stay low
-Sweep the nozzle from side to side.
Lastly don't rely on an extinguisher that's been in the boat for 10 years, get them serviced every so often. Commercial vessels including CRVs required an annual inspection and certification of all extinguishers

15/03/2026

Saturday afternoon seems quite a popular time for Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard to get a call-out and last Saturday was no exception with the pager buzzing at 1630 with message of "urgent call out" then quickly followed by a message on our 911 phone App saying vessel on fire in the harbour.
The crew quickly assembled all saying there's no sign of any fire but we could hear communication on the radio suggesting an incident out off the beach. Question did we have one event, two events, or were they related. A couple of quick phone calls cleared the confusion that there was one event and they were related.
The crew which in this case was made up of 3 skippers and a couple of senior crew were dispatched to tow in a disabled yacht out behind Clarke Is. This routine tow in operation was completed with normal efficiency.
The accompanying pictures show the yacht under tow and then the start of the raft operation being undertaken just outside the harbour entrance. Two perspectives of the yacht rafted up to GJ Gardner Rescue and one of the Nav station showing the chart with the narrow entrance to Whangamata harbour and the accompanying radar image. The red on the radar is picking up the cliffs to the north and beach sand dunes and these two features shield the radar from picking up any further detail.
Thanks photo contributes Harry, Simon, and Tony

10/03/2026

The pager system goes off at 1700 on a Monday and the message is an 8m tow back from Mayor Island. The first thought is that's not going to be a quick one. Several large boilups encountered on our 40minute trip out to Mayor. With the boat in tow we try to get it up the plan for a quicker trip home but 10knts is all we can manage.
Once properly underway we see a large ship on the port bow. The AIS signal on the radar gives us all the ship details and confirms we are safe from collision (later research told us it was on route from Tauranga to China with a load of logs).
During the tow the lights starts fading and we are treated to a stunning sunset while an hour off the coast. All instruments are turned to night mode with mainly reds with black backgrounds and white characters to preserve our night vision.
Another copybook ex*****on of a towing operation by Mace, Kris, Andy, Bryce, Grant, and Bernard and a meal of hot pizza to greet us back at base, thanks duty office Lloyd.

07/03/2026

Being a smallish community here at Whangamata we get great support from our very strong boating/fishing community.
We make our meeting and training room available for multiple groups for various meetings.
Yesterday was a little different when our boat shed was repurposed as a wedding venue for the son of one of our senior crew.
The CRV was shifted to the secure marina hard stand for the night. However something you have no control over is call outs, luckily all the wedding guest were at the church when the call went out for a small tow job. The crew were able to retrieve all the gear like headsets, PFDs and log etc without interrupting the wedding proceedings.
Tonight the management committee were hosting a BBQ event to thank all our raffle ticket selling team, this morning we had just completed the transition from wedding venue to BBQ party this morning when a call came in for assistance. The CRV was still berthed in the marina so a quick tasking that ended with use of the jump start pack instead of a tow.
And a great social enjoyed by all our selling team of over 50 except the poor Duty Officer who only had orange juice and other potential crew who had a refrained approach to the lovely social.

23/02/2026

In the normal course of events the CRV crew never expect to be in the water however we do train to ensure we have competence should one or all of the crew find themselves in the water.

Over the weekend we conducted our annual in water training exercise. This involved 6 of the crew jumping into the water given 30 seconds notice while fully clothed with boots, Overalls, Leggings and wearing our manually inflatable personal flotation devices (lifejackets). Before going over we grab whatever would be useful for flotation and anything that will assist in us being located, day or night.

Life rings and floating fenders are all good but our floating life cell is a critical item along with a danbouy to fix to it. The life cell contains useful items like tourchs, knife, rope, water bottles, a VHF radio and a selection of flares. There are also a number of lanyards and straps that we use to attach ourselves to the life cell. We spent 20 minutes in the water all chatting and looking out for each other to ensure everyone was comfortable before the CRV came back to us.

We also took the opportunity for a couple of the junior crew to tick off their recovery skills. They were first up the ladder back into the boat and then had to pull 2 of the bigger senior crew out of the water up into the CRV, not an easy task with a couple of dead weights.

While in water training is to build competence to handle such situations it is a great team building exercise with crew constantly chatting and looking out and checking on each other

08/02/2026

A big thank you to all involved at Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard during the annual National fundraising raffle
Firstly those that brought all the 3000 tickets sold locally, then the mix of permanent volunteers and casual ticket sellers for their time spent on the main street. Haines Hunter for use of the prize boat and Fairview Motors Thames for use of their Demo Ute.
While Anniversary weekend and it's weather event had a big impact on visitors to town the huge crowds that visited for Waitangi weekend and the Classic fishing competition had sales finish in a flurry with all tickets sold a day before our closure. I trust it was also a good weekend for our local business community.

On the operational front it's been a quiet summer to date for Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard. Well done all in our boating community but remember mechanical, electrical , and fuel issues are ever present in what can be a harsh marine environment.
The rescue vessel did however have a busy day on Sat 7/2 with the first call-out at 0720 followed by 2 more by mid morning.

Once again thank you to all involved in the raffle operation

12/01/2026

It doesn't rain but it pours, after a few days of inactivity Whangamata Volunteer Coastguard gets 2 taskings at the same time. Firstly a call from our northern operations centre in Auckland that there is a small inflatable behind Doughnut Is with engine problems followed by a call from a 34' launch at Slipper Is with a split water hose trying to fill the boat rather than cool the engine.
A quick call to our good friends at Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club had them tasked to go out in one of their inflatables and tow the other one in, so a big thank you to the Surf Club boys and girls.

We had a nice quick run up to Slipper Is at a comfortable cruising speed of 36knts. A close look at the numbers on the side of the plotter will show you not only speed but time, distance, bearing and actual arrival time at our destination.

A straightforward hook up to the anchored vessel saw us commence a 7-8knt trip home (4-5 times longer to tow home). A simple raft up to bring the vessel alongside outside the harbour gives us full control of the other vessel. A Securete call was made over the radio to all boats in the area notifying them we were entering the harbour with a vessel in tow and had restricted ability to manoeuver. It's always nice to get a clear run up the channel to the marina.

Our customer safely in his marina berth had us doing the washdown, debrief, and a well earned beer on a very hot day after another copybook recovery of a members vessel

09/01/2026

Bowntown bar markers Safe water mark has been moved .Outer bar mark has been moved as has Inner bar marker see below .

Address

619 Beach Road
Whangamata
3620

Telephone

+6478658800

Website

http://www.coastguardwhangamata.co.nz/

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