During 1947-51 the Club had the willing help of Mr Ivan Whale (currently a Club Vice-President) with his launch as start boat and patrol boat. This was invaluable as one annual race was around Flat Island, and another to Surfdale and back. Both of these events continue to this day.

From 1957 – 1970 we shared a rescue vessel with Howick Sea Rescue. The boat, simply called “Rescue” was built from public subscription, with Club members doing the lion’s share of the collecting. Fortunately for us, a faster boat was purchased for Howick Sea Rescue and so we bought the shared boat.

“Rescue” served the Club until 1994 when it was sold to one of our Vice-Patrons (and former Howick Mayor) Morrin Cooper. Morrin has since restored the boat (now renamed ‘Howickciting’) and uses it on Lake Rotoiti. Our current committee boat, the yellow 5.7m Mac was purchased in 1994. The majority of funding for this boat and our current fleet of rescue inflatables was from generous grants from the ASB Bank Trust, the Hillary Commission and the Lion Foundation.