Houhora team joins Coastguard

PREPARED: The Coastguard Houhora team with their new boat hooked up to the trailer ready to head north after training at Auckland.

A dozen or so Houhora volunteers who have been using their own craft to aid boaties in distress for five years are ready to become Coastguard's most northerly unit.

Six of them went to Coastguard Northern Region's headquarters in Auckland last weekend for three days of training and have returned with their first rescue vessel, a 5.9m Niad with an aluminium hull and rubber pontoons powered by a 250 horsepower Mercury sport jet.

Coastguard Houhora president Robin Gemmell said the boat was supposed to be capable of 40 knots, "but we haven't had a chance to try it out yet."

A few Houhora volunteers began rescue duties in 2010 and affiliated with Coastguard NZ in 2012.

"We've had about 12 callouts in the past year, mainly breakdowns and towing assists, but we were also involved in a Karikari Peninsula rescue last December where we retrieved three people and were awarded a Search and Rescue NZ award," Mr Gemmell said.

The Far North unit's boat, named Coastguard Houhora, is second-hand, but its new crew are glad to have it.

"It's easier to train on a dedicated rescue vessel so so a couple of us who are qualified as skippers will work on getting all 12 to 15 members of our unit up to the high skill level required to operate this craft," Mr Gemmell said.

The 12 volunteers who went to Auckland were tuned up with lessons in navigation, search and rescue techniques, CRV handling and victim recovery.

Coastguard Northern Region chief executive Callum Gillespie said: "Preparing a Coastguard unit for operational readiness is no small task as no Coastguard vessel takes to sea without its crew well trained to cope with the conditions and the situations that they might have to respond to.

"The fact that we were able to send the Houhura team back to their base far closer to readiness and towing their initial rescue vessel was the result of a great team effort by staff and volunteers from around the Northern Region."

Between now and the start of summer, the Houhora team will be working hard to complete the remaining qualifications they need to be ready to assist their community when boaties start to return to the water.

Names to accompany the image are, from left, Gillian Harper, Robin Gemmell, Murray Henderson, Greg Gemmell, Ross Wagener and Nigel Herring.