About COASTGUARD SUMNER
proud to be always ready
— day or night —
Our People
Our rescue Fleet
our partnerships
COASTGUARD SUMNER
At Coastguard Sumner, we’re proud to be a volunteer-powered rescue service that’s always ready — day or night — to help people and vessels in distress across Banks Peninsula and Pegasus Bay.
OUR MISSION STATEMENT
SAVE LIVES ON THE WATER
PROVIDE RESCUE SUPPORT ACROSS CANTERBURY’S WATERS
COLLABORATE WITH OTHER EMERGENCY SERVICES
CHAMPION SAFETY AND AWARENESS ON THE WATER
a LEGACY OF SAVING LIVES AT SEA
Our roots go back to the 1870s, when courageous locals rowed into rough seas to rescue ships in trouble. By 1898, Sumner had an organised marine rescue service — and we’ve been saving lives ever since.
Today, we operate as Coastguard Sumner, but our official charity name remains Sumner Lifeboat Institution, honouring the legacy of those early volunteers. We’re still driven by that same spirit of service.
The expression ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ seems fitting, as in 2025 we were honoured to receive two Volunteer of Excellence Awards from Coastguard: Rescue of the Year and Unit of the Year.
OUR RESCUE FLEET
We operate three specialised vessels equipped for all kinds of marine emergencies and a drone for aerial searching.
all weather VESSEL
V8 RESCUE jet boat
rescue jet ski
fast aerial drone
Powered by Volunteers
We’re 100% volunteer-run and proudly registered as a charity. Our work is made possible by generous donations, grants, and community support. Watch the short video to learn about our people.
how we respond
When a marine emergency is reported — whether by the public calling 111 or a Mayday VHF radio call — our crew are alerted by an app on our phones. Usually NZ Police trigger the alert, but for an emergency such as an EPIRB (emergency beacon) going off we are tasked by the Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ).
Night-time rescue of crew from a sinking trimaran, Jan 2019
Crew arrive in just a few minutes – our average launch time for HamiltonJet Rescue is 8.5minutes from the time our alert goes off. Boat crew get into their gear, shore crew prepare the vessels for launch and the Incident Management Team make a plan. Once launched, the radio operators maintain contact with the vessels, and their progress is tracked via GPS. We work closely with the Police and other agencies throughout the mission.
On the stern deck of Blue Arrow Rescue in the surf off Scarborough beach
STRONG PARTNERSHIPS
We’re a founding member of Coastguard and play an active role in the Southern Region.
We train with Coastguard Canterbury (Lyttelton-based), Coastguard North Canterbury (Kaiapoi-based) and the local surf life saving clubs at Sumner and Taylors Mistake.
We periodically train with Christchurch Police, Hato Hone St John and with Sumner Fire and Emergency NZ. We even take them on our rescue vessels. These exercises build friendships and familiarity with equipment across services, so we can all be effective when needing to work together to help someone in distress.
COASTGUARD VS. SURF LIFE SAVING
We often get asked: what’s the difference?
Surf Life Saving clubs patrol beaches during set daytime hours, focusing on near-shore rescues in inflatable rescue boats (IRBs). Coastguard Sumner is a 24/7 on-call service covering a wide area and has a range of rescue vessels to respond to nearby emergencies or up to 12 nautical miles offshore.
We’re separate organisations, but we share a common goal. You’ll often find us teaming up for joint searches and training exercises to help our community.
a HISTORY OF INNOVATION
Watch our 5-minute video to discover more about our history and how we operate today – innovation is built-in to our tradition.