Record call-outs and big costs for Coastguard Hawke’s Bay

Coastguard HB president Matt Harvey (right) with dad Wayne Harvey, who put together the roofing collective to reroof the unit's Meeanee Quay headquarters, relieving some of the pressure as it was facing huge costs with the replacement of its rescue craft engine. Photo / Doug Laing

Coastguard Hawke’s Bay workhorse the Celia Knowles is getting a major engine job as it heads towards a possible record number of rescues and assists.

Built at a cost of just under $1 million and launched in 2009, the 11.7m specialist rescue craft is having its engine replaced at a cost of about $500,000.

At the same time, the unit has had to reroof its Meeanee Quay headquarters.

Skipper Henry Van Tuel said that at the end of April, the Celia Knowles had answered 46 calls to sea this year, comprising 17 rescue and police call-outs and 29 assists.

The figures were at least 50% up on average, van Tuel said, highlighting the need for the service in one of the biggest areas covered by a Coastguard unit in New Zealand, from about Portland Island, off Mahia Peninsula, to south of Cape Kidnappers.

But Van Tuel and Coastguard HB chairman Matt Harvey had no explanations for the increase.

There’s no disruption to service, with 9.5m back-up craft Joe Hawke Rescue having arrived to bridge the gap during the three months of the work.

Coastguard Hawke's Bay rescue craft the Celia Knowles and relief boat the Joe Hawke Rescue, berthed at Meeanee Quay, Napier. Photo / Doug Laing

It comes in one of the biggest years all-round for the unit, which recently, with the help of local contractors, had to reroof its headquarters on Meeanee Quay, on the northern side of the Napier Inner Harbour.

The engine replacement, with the existing motor still in good working order, was an option preferred to a replacement of the craft, which could be expected in a further 10-15 years, at a cost of as much as $3 million.

“It is effectively recycling the boat, because it is quite sound,” van Tuel said.

The engine replacement gets underway, supported by $300,000 from a Coastguard NZ fund, but Harvey said other funding is still being sought, with a hoped-for sale of the existing engine also expected to help.

He said the other costs, and the increasing number of rescues and assists, highlighted the need for local support.

It came particularly with the initiative of his father, Bay Reroofing contractor Wayne Harvey, in joining forces with Stratco, Protrade Scaffolding and Konnect Fastening Systems to get the roofing done when the unit was facing such other costs.

The community effort meant the work was done within a few weeks, and Matt Harvey said: “Without it, we wouldn’t have had it done before winter.”

Doug Laing has been a reporter for 53 years, continuously based in Napier and Hastings since 1987, with the Napier Daily Telegraph and the Hawke’s Bay Today, covering most aspects of news events and issues in the region.