Coastguard Tautiaki Moana is marking a proud milestone - 50 years as a nationally united maritime search and rescue service. Throughout the year, we’ll be sharing stories from the past five decades and reaching back to our earliest roots more than a century ago. These are the stories that honour the people and moments that have shaped who we are today and guide us to the future.
How boating education at Coastguard grew from a volunteer idea into a national service reaching thousands of Kiwis each year.
New Zealanders have always had a special relationship with the water. We fish, sail, dive, and explore our coastline, and when someone gets into trouble, boaties look out for one another.
Coastguard grew out of that instinct. From as early as the 1800s, local volunteers began forming rescue groups in their communities, using whatever boats they had and relying on their knowledge of local waters. Over the decades, these independent groups spread around the country, growing into the network of units that would eventually come together as Coastguard.
But those volunteers understood something early on. Their rescue boats could only respond once someone was already in trouble. The best outcome was boaties never getting into trouble in the first place.
Coming together, and starting to teach
Local volunteer groups had long trained their own crews in seamanship.
In Auckland, volunteers began offering basic training to recreational boaties in the mid-1960s.
One of the driving forces was Alan Haddock, a former merchant seaman. In 1970 he began tutoring fellow Outboard Boating Club members in safe boating, and he ran a Safe Boating stand at the New Zealand Boat Show.
In 1976, Haddock and several other volunteers called a meeting in Taupō that led to local rescue groups coming together as a national body, the New Zealand Coastguard Federation. Three years later, Coastguard Education was founded as a national organisation, starting with just four courses.
From hundreds to thousands
A big step came in 1986. Following a Ministry of Transport restructure, Coastguard was invited to take over teaching the Boatmaster programme, followed by all other Government recreational boating courses at that time, including the NZ Coastal Skipper and NZ Yachtmaster courses.
The growth that followed was remarkable and in 1986, between 500 and 600 boaties took a Coastguard course.
Today, with over 14 courses available, more than 4,000 people sign up to a Coastguard course each year.
Coastguard’s boating education is the leading provider of boating courses in Aotearoa, with courses for all abilities, types of boating and training pathways.
A lot has changed. The purpose hasn’t.
Coastguard’s courses have developed into a structured, knowledge-based learning programme designed for different levels of experience, different types of boats and different ambitions. Learning looks different too. Alongside classroom courses, boaties can now learn online at their own pace.
Behind the courses are tutors who are experts in their subjects. They help students connect the theory with the decisions they’ll face on the water, whether that’s reading the weather, handling a boat with confidence, using a VHF radio correctly or knowing what to do in an emergency.
Coastguard Boating Education has evolved over the years, but the idea behind it hasn’t: the best rescue is the one that never needs to happen.
