25-06-2025
New Coastguard boat arrives
Riverton Coastguard skipper and chairman Ross McKenzie (left) and Gough Bros manager Nick Morris with the new Coastguard boat behind them. PHOTO: TONI MCDONALD
After seven years, Riverton's Coastguard skipper and chairman Ross McKenzie yesterday drove the new $1 millionrescue boat home, ready for its launch in August.
But filling it with 700 litres of fuel was the first stop before tucking it into its purpose-built shed.
The Riverton crew will take the boat through sea trials before its official launch on Riverton's high tide on August 16.
The vessel replaces the 25-year-old 8.5m Naiad, also called the Russell John Chisholm, named after a 7-year-old boy whose body was never found after a Cessna carrying 10 passengers plunged into Foveaux Strait in 1998.
Built by Gough Bros in Invercargill, the 10m hard-top Naiad is powered by twin V6 350 Yamaha outboard engines and equipped with autopilot search patterns, a Forward Looking Infrared thermal image camera and night-vision cameras.
— Toni McDonald
