History of Howick Coastguard

Our History

The Howick Volunteer Coastguard was established in 1956 as part of the Howick Volunteer Fire Brigade under the name of the Howick Sea Rescue after the drowning of 3 local youths. The Howick unit which has been in continuous service ever since was initially Crewed and Managed by the members of the Howick Volunteer Fire Brigade.

In 1984 the original Howick Sea Rescue organisation became Howick Volunteer Coastguard and is a full member of The Royal New Zealand Coastguard Inc. The Howick unit consists of around 40 members who are all operational crew and live relatively close to the Headquarters at Howick Beach. The members are organised into duty crews who voluntarily give up their time to attend weekly training sessions and to rescue people and boats. Callout is by pager 24 hrs a day, 365 days per year and the response time from the call until the boat is in the water is typically 10 minutes. Crew’s turnout to an average of 170 incidents per year. The Primary area of responsibility is the Tamaki Strait and the Firth of Thames across to Coromandel and down to Thames.

Past Howick Coastguard Rescue Vessels

Howick Rescue 2 (2007)

Howick Rescue 2 (HR2) is a smaller 2 to 6 person 5.5m NAIAD RIB, powered by a 250HP Optimax Jet unit. Funding was obtained from Pub Charity. This boat is used in the local area if the larger boat is away on a more distant mission. See more about Howick Rescue 2 vessel >

Howick CRV - "Howick Rescue 2"

Howick Rescue 1 (2003)

Launching was at Howick beach on Saturday 22nd November 2003. Read more >

Howick Rescue 2 (old)

The previous Howick Rescue 2 (HR2) was a smaller 2 person NAIAD 4.3 RIB, powered by a 50HP Mercury Outboard motor. This boat is now serving as a training boat for Coastguard Northern Region. Read more >

Howick Rescue 1 (1995)

The Preceeding Howick Rescue 1 was a NAIAD 8.5 RIB, powered by a 350HP Yanmar Diesel and a Hamilton 273 Jet Unit. This boat was sold to the NZ Coastguard Federation and is now in service at Queenstown Coastguard. Launching was in 1995. Read more >

 Checkout our photo gallery for more images of Howick Coastugard at work.