Bluff Yacht Club’s new rescue boat to keep its young sailors safe

The Bluff Yacht Club has a new rescue boat which will help ensure the safety of its young sailors and any others who get in trouble on the harbour.

All the club’s sailing is done in Bluff Harbour and until now one rescue boat was used to ensure its sailing members were safe on the water.

Now it’s got two rescue boats, with a big fundraising effort securing a $45,000 Rib Rigid Inflatable boat.

Club members launched the boat on Saturday.

READ MORE:
* Safety floats boat for Nelson harbourmaster
* Bay of Islands yacht rescue: Reports vessel was returning from Fiji, investigation launched
* Yacht victim was a lifelong sailor and chair of sailing trust

Treasurer Anders Jagvik said the club had 70 members and did a lot of learn to sail days with groups of different abilities, with the young sailors spread over a large area of the harbour.

“From a safety point of view we were stretched with one rescue boat, but now we can be at two different places.”

The club dipped into its own cash reserves and received support from numerous funding agencies to fund the vessel.

The boat would also be accessible to the Bluff Coastguard for any inshore seach and rescue operations, Jagvik said.

Bluff Yacht Club commodore Grace Finlayson said the club was growing and its extra rescue boat would ensure more sailors could be out on the water having fun.

On Saturday the club opened its sailing season, which goes to the end of March.