Wanganui's guardians of the water

Wanganui Chronicle landlubber KATHRYN KING spoke to Coastguard skipper Joff Latus to find out more about the organisation and its dedicated volunteers.

Audrey Cox's decision to start looking out for other small fishing boats in the area started the chain of events which eventually led to the formation of the Wanganui Coastguard as we know it today in 1987.
A charity, the organisation is funded by donations, grants and sponsorship, and was one of the recipients of $2800 raised by last weekend's HEHA Round the Bridges run.
The funds are expected to go to the expansion of the units shed on Wharf St, which houses the Energy Direct rescue boat, or toward training for the volunteers.

Truancy officer by profession and Coastguard Wanganui skipper by vocation, sailing is in Joff Latus' blood.
A Whitby, North Yorkshire, expat, Latus has lived in Wanganui for 12 years and has been a volunteer in the coastguard for five years.
It was his wife, who pointed out a newspaper advertisement for coastguard volunteers, that got him into it - he'd been driving her mad because they didn't have a boat, he said.
"I had already done a coastal skipper [course] with coastguard boats in education, looking for someone who had a boat ... but the best we could rustle up between us was a kayak," he said, laughing.
Joining the coastguard was a good way to satisfy your own urge to get out on the water, as well as a way to give something back, he said.
Wanganui Coastguard has enough volunteers to make up three crews and three skippers. Each crew has between three and four people, including the skipper.
The crews rotate fortnightly, but often even those who are not on call will turn up at the boatshed if they are nearby, he said.
That was simply the sort of crew that they had here.
Some volunteers have never been on a boat before and that is okay, because they are taught everything they need to know.
And getting your sea legs? "Even the best suffer from seasickness," he says.
The day-to-day professions of volunteers range widely and include a baker, teacher, school principal, a dairy worker, glazier and an engineer.
"You've really got to take your hat off to our long suffering partners, families, children, employers ... there's a big community thing to it as well."
Their pager could go off at any time, he'd been paged at 6.30am and 11.30pm in the past, he said.
When it went, so did they, straight to the boatshed as fast as (legally) possible.
Latus said a few months ago, his pager went off at 8.30am and the jobs just kept coming - they weren't washing the boat down until 10pm that night.
"Days like that didn't come very often but whatever we had planned for that day with work or family wasn't going to happen."
There was a definite buzz and anticipation in going out, he said. Usually they knew what they were going to from the initial page - if it's anything other than a tow, speed is paramount, he said.
Last month was a quiet one, so they did about 75 hours of training, sometimes they do more. The training never stopped, he said.
Everyone was working through modules in their log books, and it was important that every member of the crew was able to do all the necessary jobs on the boat.
A situation had occurred in the past where a skipper and senior members of the crew had been incapacitated and junior crew had been left to manage the situation.
As a skipper, his primary responsibility was for the safety and well-being of the crew - if they aren't fit and well, then they can't undertake the necessary tasks.
When all the training came together and ended in a good result, that was the most satisfying, he said.
One of his favourite memories was the rescue of a group of four who had capsized their stabi-craft pontoon boat about 7km south of Waiinu Beach.
The boat had gone over at about 3.30pm, but the group of four, two men, a woman and a then 10-year-old boy, weren't found until about 17 hours later, clinging to their upturned boat.
The first thing he saw when they came upon them was a large man standing on top of the boat blowing them kisses as they approached, he said.
When they were driving back, he was standing looking toward the helm and all he could see was teeth from their huge grins.
"That was good, that was a bit of a Minties moment.
"You can't help but be a little nervous about what you are going to find, but to find everyone cold, but otherwise okay ... When kids are involved you get that extra Disney bit."
You do dwell on operations that do not have positive outcomes but you learn from them as well, he said.
There were a few humorous jobs as well, like when they went to find a small craft.
They knew they were not far from it, and they asked the man via radio if he had his navigation lights on and he said he had.
When they did find him, his lights were on, but he had put them facing upwards. The man's friend commented: "At least they were helicopter friendly."
Their busiest time was at the start of the year and this year had been fairly quiet, which was a good thing, he said.
The coastguard cover an area from Foxton to Patea, 18 miles of navigable river and out to the 12-mile limit - they could go out further than that, but it required certain protocols to be followed.
Currently they have 820 boats registered with the Wanganui Coastguard Radio, which is manned by five volunteers, who work in shifts, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
They had seen a great improvement in people taking the right steps and doing the right things when they are going out on the boat.
Information was readily available from a variety of sources, and that had helped with the improvement, he said.
In other areas, the coastguard charged for their services, but in Wanganui they do not.
The coastguard commercial rate is $280 an hour, with a minimum charge of $97 for non-members, and free to members.
In Coastguard Northern Region, yearly membership for an individual or family is $97.
Some people were generous with their donations, while others reached into the chilly bin if they had nothing on them and gave them some fish, he said.
"I can't stress enough, it's the staff and crew members at every level, from a variety of backgrounds and experience that pull this thing together.
"It can be stressful at times, some occasions can be quite demanding ... Long may it continue."
Wanganui Coastguard is always looking for volunteers for a variety of roles, full training is provided for free. For more information, call 06 344 4686