In 1994, local Police requested the assistance of Coastguard Canterbury to set up marine search and rescue for the district. A group of volunteers was formed and training began. South Canterbury Volunteer Coastguard Inc was formed in August of that year, and we changed our name to Coastguard South Canterbury Inc in 2005.

In 2003 we purchased an 8.5m Protector ‘Timaru Rescue’ and we added a cabin to this vessel in 2008. Our current vessel a 9m Protector also named ‘Timaru Rescue’ was provided from the Americas Cup boats by Coastguard New Zealand with a contribution from us towards the refit costs.