Ivan Talley Rescue

Coastguard West Coast volunteers were put on standby on Saturday 26th June when a red flare was sighted over the Tasman Sea offshore from Barry Town near Greymouth, at 8.35pm.    A possible vessel sighting was subsequently reported and a helcopter with night vision was dispatched but could not locate anything.  The Ivan Talley Rescue and its volunteer crew was stood down by Police at 10pm.

Friday 18th June the 10m yacht  Marguerite sailing from the Marlborough Sounds en route to Lyttelton hit what the crew believed to be a whale and sustained damage to the rudder.  The lurch of the vessel threw a woman crew member into fishing gear where she sustained an injury to the buttock area from a 15cm tuna hook and the skipper also fell spraining his wrist.  In heavy seas with their rudder jammed they were not able steer the yacht and a large wave pushed water into the cabin area disabling their electronics.  They spent an uncomfortable night and maintained contact with the Maritime NZ Rescue Coordination Centre  (RCC) via a ‘fleet link’ radio. The next morning they activated their EPRIB and the RCC handed the management of the search and rescue operation to Police.

Coastguard Kaikoura volunteer crew were tasked by Police and launched Kaikoura Rescue, facing one of their toughest rescues battling breaking swells up to five metres high and winds gusting 55 – 75km per hour.  The Marguerite was 30 kilometres off Kaikoura and it took and hour and a half to reach the stranded yachities in the high seas.  With visibillity poor the yacht set off two flares as Kaikoura Rescue reached their location to enable the Coastguard volunteer crew to finally locate the yacht.  Transferring the yachities to the Coastguard Rescue Vessel was difficult in the conditions and they were brought to shore where the injured pair were taken to Kaikoura Hospital by ambulance.

The Coastguard Kaikoura volunteers later returned to find and take the yacht under tow back to South Bay, Kaikoura.  Jack Kemp of Coastguard Kaikoura praised the Marguerites skipper and crew, who were experienced and had all the safety gear needed including the EPRIB beacon and a UFH radio.

Coastguard Riverton volunteers on Russell John Chisholm Rescue provided a safety boat service for the annual mid-winter swim off Oreti Beach on Sunday 20th June.  This was followed by a flare demonstration.

Coastguard Waimakariri Ashley spent 14 hours searching for a suspected missing person after Police received a report of someone jumping off the motorway bridge across the Kaiapoi River.  The incident was reported at 10.15pm on Thursday 17th June and Coastguard launched Kaikapo 1, Rangiora High Rescue and a jetboat to search the river.   In addition a shoreline search was carried out by LandSAR personnel.  At 20 past midnight the search was called off as no trace of a person had been found.

After a debrief with Police Coastguard Waimakariri Ashley volunteers recommenced searching the river at 10am on Friday morning to coincide with the high tide stopping at midday and recommencing for a third time at 3pm (low tide) for a final search.  At 4pm that afternoon the search was finally called off by Police with nothing being found.

Volunteers from Coastguard Lake Brunner and Coastguard West Coast were called out on Sunday 13th June at 3.30pm to search for a missing woman who’s car had been found in the car park of Lake Mahinapua, south of Hokitika.  Police who held concerns for her safety, called out the two Coastguard  units to search the Lake.  Three Coastguard vessels were used in the search including MoA Rescue, which was provided by Coastguard for the local Coastguard Lake Brunner unit on 1st May.  This is the first time the vessel has been used in a local search and rescue operation.  Coastguard West Coast used their IRB vessels.

The search was called off on Sunday night due to poor visibility at 6pm and resumed at 9.30am Monday morning when the Police Dive Squad were assisted by Coastguard Lake Brunner volunteers in the search for and recovery of the woman’s body.

Motor fails on fishing trip

5th June 2010, 4 men went out for a days fishing in a 5m Bayliner left for a days fishing around 10am.  The sea was rough with a 2.5m swell although the day was fine.  On arrival at the fishing reef the fishing was so poor they decided to return home and on the return journey the main engine failed.  Their axillary engine was only 8hp and was unable to cope with the rough conditions.  Unable to trigger the VHF repeater they managed to call a friend by cellphone who alerted Police.  Coastguard Riverton volunteers were paged and they launched the Russel John Chisholm heading out to the GPS coordinates provided by the vessel in distress.  Locating them at 11.30am they took them under tow and were able to return them safely to Colic Bay.

Sumner Bay search

4th June 2010, Police called out Sumner Lifeboat to search for a person seen entering the water near Cave Rock by a member of the public at 16.59.  Hamilton Jet Rescue was launched and a shoreline search was also carried out by Sumner Lifeboat volunteers.   Apart from surfers no other person was located and the Police stood down the search at 18.26.