Founded in 2008, it was named unit of the year in last year’s Coastguard New Zealand Volunteer Awards of Excellence and is out to defend that title this year, while also being nominated in four other categories — unit innovation of the year, community engagement of the year, outstanding leadership (unit president Johnny Quinn) and unit support volunteer of the year (Stephen Jarvis).
Quinn says it’s a wonderful nod to the hard work and countless hours the crew puts in behind the scenes, both on the water and in the community.
He believes their shortlisting in the innovation category is primarily attributable to their use of night vision equipment and installing Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite network, into their boat — that’s believed to be a first for Coastguard in NZ.
"It allows us to be connected back to the base a lot more; we’re sending images back from the screens, so there’s a lot of good innovation going on around the unit."
In terms of community engagement, Quinn jokes when he joined four years ago "we were male, pale and stale — a bunch of old blokes arguing about ropes".
There are now 35 volunteers involved in Coastguard Queenstown, 12 of whom are women, and there’s a real push to get younger people involved, including the Alpha generation (those born after 2011).
The unit’s also gone from having one skipper to four — soon to be six — and has fostered strong connections with local agencies, including the police, Red Cross and St John.
And thanks to their relationship with Queenstown Airport they’re looking to do even more in the community, including a cleanup in and around the operations base, including in Lake Whakatipu, something they hope to become an annual event.
Of Jarvis’ nomination, Quinn says the Arrowtown Scouts leader recently won an award for organising the ‘Coastguard Olympics’, an annual event held at Christmas, all based around training.
He’s also one of the fastest people to move from being a Coastguard recruit to a skipper.
"He’s a real gregarious guy, everybody loves him, and he’s an awesome skipper — he just passes on his knowledge to everybody."
Official finalists will be announced on September 8, with the winners announced on September 22.
