Coast Guard needs new boat

COAST Guard Queenscliff (CGQ) has retired its primary marine vessel after two decades of service, leaving it with a rescue capability gap.

A refit in 2015 of the 9-metre vessel CG09 prolonged its life for 500 hours above the recommended time of operation, but its age and increasing breakdowns prompted its recent decommissioning.

“A grant we got in 2014-15 to upgrade the vessel allowed us to refit CG09. That was the best we could do back then,” CGQ Commodore Michael Donohue said.

“No amount of refitting can turn it into a modern boat… Queenscliff needs to be fixed, but as do other vessels around the state.”

Ageing craft and others that are not capable of carrying out tasks like towing larger boats is a state-wide issue for the Marine Search and Rescue sector (MSAR), Mr Donohue said, and it was primarily an issue of money.

MSAR is just over a quarter of the way through a state-wide replacement process of coast guard vessels, 13 out of 45 have made their way into service, with a deadline of 2027 for the process to be completed.

“The issue is that MSAR stopped receiving funding for new vessels some years ago – 13 vessels in the 2017-18 budget – but there’s been a gap since then,” Mr Donohue said. “They need to do something about it before it becomes a problem, you can’t wait for it to become an issue.

“We had been hopeful of funding in the 2022-23 state budget and work had been done for that funding, but it didn’t get approved, very disappointed.”

CGQ has been loaned a smaller 8.5 metre boat known as 304 as it continues to lobby for the $1.2 million needed for a 11.4 metre Steber Craft, and a second smaller craft, but even if the funds turned up tomorrow the wait time on new boats is up to two years.

“304 will do 80 per cent of the jobs we need it to do, but a recent example where the boat wouldn’t be fit for purpose was a rescue in May of an ocean going yacht disabled off Cape Schank with a snapped mast, and lines wrapped around prop.

“The now-retired CG09 took two hours to drag boat back to safety in harbour, through the heads.

“It’s not unusual for us to get a callout like this, probably half a dozen of these jobs come up a year.”

The fallback is a water police vessel having to come from Williamstown, an hour journey to the heads, whereas CGQ is as little as 10 minutes’ away.

“If the vessel is not available then we can’t respond. The minister (Jaclyn Symes) has written to me and said she’s committed to keep the MSAR sector safe and operational,” Mr Donohue said.

“I responded that the lack of capital funding shows she’s not meeting her commitment to keeping the MSAR sector safe and operational.”