Lifeboat service ‘not adequate’

Press, 18 November 1981, Page 3

Lifeboat service ‘not adequate’

Sumner's lifeboat service is now ‘•totally inadequate.” says the secretary of the Sumner Lifeboat Institution, Mr W. J. Baguley.

His comment was made after Monday evening's disastrous "rescue” operation which saw the institution’s small jet rescue boat. Aid 11. smashed on rocks and the larger craft. Rescue 111, forced to shelter at Lyttelton because of heavy seas.

Mr Baguley said last evening that Rescue 111 might have to stay at Lyttelton, about an hour's sailing time from Sumner, until the

Christchurch City Council repaired its Sumner slipway.

But the council is not due to hear a report on the slipway until the December meeting of the works and traffic committee.

The Deputy Mayor of Christchurch, Mr Rex Lester, said last evening that ‘‘the worth of the service was not in debate.” However, the council was responsible for the spending of ratepayers' money and similar services at Wellington and Auckland were funded by the Government.

The council had to consider the report, on all the marine rescue services in Canterbury, as it considered everything else, Mr Lester said.' At the moment things are difficult for the lifeboat service. Rescue 111 can only be launched close to high tide because the timber slipway has been eaten away by Toredo worms. Berths in the Estuary or at the Christchurch Yacht Club are inadequate because Rescue 111 cannot sail over the bar at low tide. Mr Bagueley said there was “no way the lifeboat service would spend its hardearned money on repairing the council’s slipway.” The council owned it and so should repair it. The council was first told of the slipway problem last December and budgeted $20,000 for repairs. However, council engineers now believe 1 repairs could cost $50,000. Repairs involve replacing deteriorating wooden bearers under the slipway with concrete ones.

Mr Baguley said the lifeboat service would probably have a new jetboat in February. It would be built by a Christchurch company and there could be a public appeal to raise funds for it. Monday’s drama began about 7.30 p.m. when the service was told that a group of surfers was in trouble in rough seas off Sumner Head. Returning from an unsuc- , cessful search, the Aid II overturned and was washed on to the rocks. The two-man crew was taken to Christchurch Hospital suffering from exposure. The 10-tonne Rescue 111 was then launched from her half-collapsed . slipway but had to head to Lyttelton because of rough seas. The police confirmed yesterday that no surfer was missing, in spite of original fears that three may have been lost in the rough seas.