Two decades on the briny

A toast to coast service twenty years in the making.

Graeme Richards has ensured boaties get the best out of their time on the briny, helped bring oceangoers in peril back to dry land, and advocated for water safety in his 20 years volunteering with Coastguard.

He says his sailing voyages in New Zealand and the UK and a yearning to take a break from his 24/7 shifts at a Greymouth motel launched his career with the organisation.

He served the West Coast community for eight years, including as president, before setting his Coastguard compass to Nelson, where a rescue mission in 2016 signalled his utmost response.

Two young girls in an inflatable boat got into trouble after being swept two to three miles off Rabbit Island by a squally offshore breeze, as did a man in his 30s who had paddled to the girls on a surfboard to rescue them.

“We were doing a tow into Motueka, and the tide was almost low, so we were worried that we weren’t going to be able to get out again and we got the call out for these little girls,” he says.

“We had a discussion and decided it was worth trying to get over the Motueka bar and it wasn’t particularly rough.

“Adrenaline doesn’t play its part too much anymore because we do quite a few [rescues] so everything stays pretty cool, calm and collected, but these girls were hypothermic, which still gets emotional.

“The public I don’t think realise that Coastguard is around until they actually get into trouble on the water, then they become very aware… if there’s no Coastguard unit then people are going to die.”

Graeme says he’s also been involved in Coastguard’s Old 4 New campaign which helps Kiwis exchange old lifejackets for discounted, brand-new water safety gear.

He’s also introduced new members to the base, and remarks the Nelson community’s support for it, particularly in helping fundraise $1.4 million for its new purpose-built vessel, which was launched in March 2021.

The 71-year-old says he’s winding back his service at sea but will continue serving in incident management and other areas within the organisation, come hell or high water.