So You Want to Crew?

We currently have 3 crews operating on a rotating weekly roster & this is split into groups of those who can respond to callouts during the weekends, nights & weekdays. We need a reasonably large pool of people to ensure volunteers get a break and are not out on the water all of their spare time. We are looking to increase our number of crews and we are also interested in training people up to the level of Coastguard Skippers (a Coastguard COC certificate is required to skipper any Coastguard rescue vessel.)

There are no formal qualifications required to become a Coastguard volunteer. Enthusiasm is a must as is the will to learn. Boating experience is an obvious advantage but the training you will receive from Coastguard will provide you with a comprehensive knowledge of boat safety and maintenance. Training is ongoing, free or heavily subsidised, and you will learn all about:

• Emergency and Rescue Equipment and how it works
• Fire Fighting and associated equipment and how to use it
• Personal Boat Safety
• First Aid
• Search & Rescue Techniques on the water
• Search & Rescue with Aircraft
• Victim Recovery
• Towing Techniques
• Damage Control
• Local Area Familiarisation
• Use of Radar Equipment
• Use of GPS Equipment
• VHF Training & Use of Equipment
• Heavy Weather Training

You will be invited along to a unit meeting to meet us prior to making a decision about crewing on the vessel or commencing training to help decide if this is for you, and you will also be shown over ‘Hibiscus Rescue One’ on an induction visit, so you are familiar with what equipment we have on board the boat and where it is stored before you go out on the boat for the first time.

To start you off, we send you on a 7 week Coastguard New Recruit course held at the Marine Rescue Centre in Mechanics Bay, Auckland on Tuesday evenings where you learn about the basics of crewing on a rescue vessel – Personal Safety, Man Overboard, Legal Considerations, the NZ SAR system, SAR Communications, and you also do a practical session in the Wave Pool on In-water Survivability.

Following successful completion of the New Recruit course, and subject to your acceptance as a full member of the unit by the Coastguard Hibiscus Committee, you will be placed on one of our 3 crews as a trainee and you will then be expected to fulfill minimum crewing hours of 12 hours every 12 weeks. You will be expected to crew when your crew is on, every 4 weeks or so but can can volunteer to crew as a trainee at any other time as long as there is a place available on the boat.

The next training you will be sent on, if you do not already hold the qualifications, is Dayskipper’s and Boatmaster’s Certificates, a course to obtain a VHF Licence and a Coastguard SAR Medic course. Following this, training is ongoing, with both theory modules and practical training to ensure crew are up to date and provide the best possible service to boaties in difficulty.

Availability

We are on call 24/7, 365 days a year. As a New Recruit, you will not be issued with a pager until after you have completed the New Recruit course and the Unit Training Officer assesses that you have reached a competent standard to respond to page-outs. When issued with a pager, you will be required to carry the pager & respond to callouts when you have indicated you are available. For some people this will be weekends & evenings only. For others it may be during the day. Within the unit we collectively cover all hours.

Location

Hibiscus Rescue One is based at Gulf Harbour and we have a second vessel, Hibiscus Rescue Two, (a Sealegs especially outfitted for Coastguard duites), based at Stanmore Bay. Therefore we need crew who live on and around these areas in order to achieve the fastest response times. You could live anywhere on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula. Our target call-out time is 25 mins maximum from the pager going off to the boat leaving the marina. The faster we leave the berth the more chance there is of our saving lives at sea.

Coastguard Duties & Call-outs

We take the boat out every weekend for training. During this time we are also available to be allocated to rescue jobs by the Operations team at the Marine Rescue Centre in Auckland. These could be anything from a tow or jump-start to a full –scale distress situation. Every 6^th week or so we are the area duty boat, which means we are out on the water all day Saturday & Sunday as well as being more likely to be assigned call-outs during this time. We can be tasked out to anywhere in the Hauraki Gulf. During the Christmas break when traffic on the water increases significantly, we patrol the area around Whangaparaoa Peninsula most days for about 6 weeks.

Still keen?

The next step is to contact Coastguard Hibiscus Recruitment Officer, Karen Elliot.

Email: recruitment@hibiscus.org.nz or phone 021 654 018 evenings and weekends

Karen will answer your questions and if you decide to go ahead, will sign you up & register you on the Recruit course.
The application form to join Coastguard Hibiscus can be downloaded below. When completed, it should be returned to the Recruitment Officer at the PO Box on the form or brought along to a unit meeting.

Click to open PDF files.

• Registration of Interest - Coastguard Hibiscus