All winners L-R Alan Murgatroyd, Peter Garnett, Alex Moore, Rachel Mckenzie, Murray Paul, Cliff Hodgman, Richard Craig, Neroli Gold, John McPhail

Rachel McKenzie from Coastguard Canterbury has received the Volunteer of the Year Award, Murray Paul of Coastguard Kaikoura was awarded the Rescue Vessel Volunteer of the Year, and the exceptional performance of Coastguard Kaikoura earned the unit the Rescue of the Year Award.

Six awards in total were awarded to individuals and Coastguard units whose contributions to the organisaiton were recognised, as the New Zealand Coastguard community came togeather to honour the year’s achievements.

Rachel has been involved in Coastguard for more than 17 years.  During this time, she has held a number of positions within her unit including Safety Officer, Training Officer, Senior Skipper and Police Marine SAR Advisor.  She is also an active board member for Coastguard Canterbury.

Murray has been involved in Coastguard for more than five years.  According to his team, Murrayis a willing and enthusiastic participant in all Coastguard activities.   In the past yea this has involved a number of difficult rescues, including the rescue awarded ‘Rescue of  the Year’, and also included overseeing the rebuild of the Coastguard Kaikoura premises.

The Coastguard Kaikoura team was presented with their award for their response and contribution to an incident of the Kaikoura coast.  They played a pivotal role in saving the lives of the crew on a 10m yacht Marguerite which was sailing from the Marlborough Sounds en route to Lyttelton when it hit what is thought to have been a whale.  Injuring two of the crew and seriously damaging the rudder, the boat was immobilised and heavey seas swaming the yacht disables the electronics.  The crew spent an uncomfortable night out in open seas before Coastguard Kaioura were tasked with one of their toughest rescues to date, battling breaking swells up to five metres and high winds.  Located 30km off shore, the frightening conditions mad the transfer of the yachties to the rescue vessel difficult but all were safely brought to shore.

Coastguard New Zealand CEO Bruce Reid says, “Coastguard survives and thrives thanks to the dedicaiton of volunteers like Rache, Murray and the Coastguard Kaikoura team.  We are pleased to be able to honour those outstanding individuals who make it all possible with these awards.”

Coastguard is New Zealand’s primary marine search and rescue services.  It is made up of highly-trained volunteers who put themselves in harms way on a regular basis to ensure the safety of people at sea.  Earlier this year, Coastguard celebrated its highest ever number of annual volunteer hours, with more than 330,000 hours donated by 2,100 professional volunteers across New Zealand.

“This year’s award winners have all shown outstanding service to Coastguard and their local communities, and our sincere thanks goes out to those volunteers for their commitment to saving lieves at sea,” says Reid.

Pictured: L-R Ian McArtney, John MacPhail, Neroli Gold and Richard Craig

Coastguard Kaikoura celebrated a combined service of 87 years last night with volunteers recieving Coastguard’s recently introduced long service awards at their annual general meeting.  Richard Craig a 22 year vetran of the local service recieved a 20 year certificate and bar, along with 10 other volunteers.

Neroli Gold, John MacPhail and Ian McArtney received their 10 year certificates and bars; Geoff Pollard, Ian Blackler, Ron Burnby and Murray Paul 5 year certificates and bars; and Jack Kemp, Daryl McMillan and Louise Yaxley received 3 year pins.

Coastguard Kaikoura volunteers gave 4,325 hours of service to their community, answering 27 calls for assistance from the public and responding to 18 Police initiated search and rescue missions.  53 people were assisted or rescued as a result of the actions of Coastguard Kaikoura volunteers.

Rachel McKenzie was one of 15 volunteers with a combined service to Coastguard of 111 years who received their Long Service Awards from Coastguard Regional Operations Manager, Mark Whitehouse, on Tuesday.

Rachel has been a volunteer with Coastguard for 17 years and is the longest serving active member of Coastguard Canterbury.  A recent recipient of the regional volunteer award for Coastguard Volunteer of the Year, she is totally dedicated to Coastguard and is the first to be called in any incident and attends the majority of call outs either as Skipper, Crew or Search & Rescue Coordinator.

Other volunteers honoured are Jim Lilley (16 years);  Gerry Steele (14 years); Michael Davies (11 years); Graeme Rees (9 years); Nick Sears &  Paul Elliott (7 years); Gavin Mitchell (6 years); Adam Gray & Gary Tavendale (5 yesrs); James Colyer (4 years);  Chris Astall, Colin James, Dean Verlander & Yang Zhang (3 years).

In the last year volunteers with Coastguard Canterbury gave 9,174 hours of service to the community.  They responded to 53 calls for assistance from the public, were involved in 20 Police initiated search and rescue operations.  84 people were rescued or asssited as a result.

Coastguard Waimakariri-Ashley volunteers have been busy making sure they are operational after Saturday mornings 7.1 earthquake tilted their headquarters building and damaged their launching slipway.  The concrete block building itself has stood the test well but being situated on the riverbank has meant that it has tilted and lost power and water feeds.

Coastguard’s Nowcasting for the Canterbury area is fed from this station and will be off the air until power can be restored.

Volunteers were working on the building when their pagers went off on Saturday morning and they were called to assist with a vehicle in the river mouth.

Further pictures are available on the Coastguard Southern Region Facebook page.

Four Coastguard volunteers were honoured for their work at a special awards lunch on Saturday.  Pictured are L-R (rear) Gordon McKay, Rachel McKenzie, Murray Paul (front) Chris Astall, John McPhail President Coastguard Kaikoura.

Murray Paul is the Southern Region Coastguard Rescue Volunteer of the Year 2010 for his work with Coastguard Kaikoura.  Murray has been a Coastguard volunteer for five years and is a Skipper of  ‘Kaikoura Rescue‘.  A dedicated volunteer he has been involved in many of the rescues undertaken by Coastguard Kaikoura including a severe North-West gale in December 2009 where  the rescue vessel was needed for three separate incidents happening at the same time.  Handling the 11.3 meter vessel around the rock shoreline in 70 knot winds demanded a high level of seamanship.

Gordon McKay is the Southern Region Coastguard Air Patrol Volunteer of the Year 2010 for his work with the Coastguard Canterbury Air Patrol.   Gordon was involved in an air search for a yacht  that stretched the capability of the aircraft as they sought to make radio contact from 6,000 feet with no land in sight.   He is involved in training for his fellow volunteers and has extensive marine experience which is valuable in the liaison between the Air Patrol and the Marine Units.

Rachel McKenzie is Coastguard Southern Region Volunteer of the Year 2010. Rachel has been a member of Coastguard Canterbury for over 15 years.  She has had many roles within the unit including Senior Skipper, Safety Officer, Search & Rescue Manager, Duty Officer and Board member.  She has been involved in many search and rescue operations as either the Skipper of the rescue vessel or the shore based Operations Coordinator.  She has been involved in training at every level both theory and practical as well as providing leadership and mentoring for new members.

Chris Astall is Coastguard Southern Region Operational Volunteer of the Year 2010. Chris has been a member of Coastguard Canterbury for three years and is a team leader, training manager and senior crew member.  He has be instramentall in further developing the unit training activities with has seen an large increase in the number of volunteers participating in regular training nights.

Coastguard Kaikoura has won the Coastguard Southern Region Coastguard Performance of the Year 2010. Since 1974 Coastguard Kaikoura volunteers have been rescuing people along the beautiful but sometimes treacherous Kaikoura Coast.  Earlier this year they rescued the crew of the yacht Marguerite in 5 metre breaking swells and 55-75km per hour winds.  During the last twelve months they have rescued 53 people and had a 100% increase in Police initiated search and rescue missions.

The winners have been nominated for the national Coastguard Volunteer Awards which will be presented at the Coastguard Conference being held in Taupo on 17-19 September.