Rescue of Wedgetail during 2007 Sydney Hobart

St Helens Marine Rescue wish to express their sympathy to Lorraine and the extended family of our esteemed member Ted Collings who passed away on 18 June 2011 after a prolonged battle.

Ted has been a loyal, dedicated and active member of the service for a number of years. His sense of duty will be greatly missed.

One of the memorable rescues Ted was involved in was the recovery of the yacht Wedgetail during the 2007 Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Wedgetail broke her rudder as she was sailing about 35 nautical miles to the east of St Helens and the 14-hour rescue was accomplished under challenging conditions including 40 foot waves and 110km/h winds.

St Helens Marine Rescue and Surf Life Saving Australia have agreed in principle to become affiliated. We would be retaining our name, St Helens Marine Rescue, as well as our uniform. We would, however, become an offshore arm of Surf Life Saving Australia. The affiliation would bring benefits to the two organisations that share the same objectives of serving to protect and educate the public and render assistance to persons in distress.

With the affiliation, Surf Life Saving Australia’s experience, resources and the extent of its operations Australia-wide could be leveraged to provide a better service to the communities in North East Tasmania. It would also allow both organisations to make better use of expensive and scarce resources such as rescue vessels and aircraft.

This is promising to be an exciting time for all members of St Helens Marine Rescue as new opportunities develop. Watch this space for more news once the agreement with Surf Life Saving Australia has been ratified by both organisations.

St Helens Marine Rescue is one of four recipients of a Rio Tinto Alcan Bell Bay community grant. The $500 granted to us will enable the purchase of much-needed equipment to assist with night time rescues.

As we are a totally self-funded organisation and rely totally on community donations we are grateful for Rio Tinto Alcan’s support. We are one of four recipients of the first round of this year’s Rio Tinto Alcan Bell Bay community grants programme. Other successful applicants are the Salvation Army for its therapeutic youth residential programme, a Launceston family in need of a support dog, the Launceston General Hospital 4k Children’s Ward auxiliary and the Youth Suicide Action group.

Rio Tinto Alcan has a long history of supporting Tasmanian communities and the community grants initiative provides financial support to not-for-profit organisations and individuals across the State.

A presentation to St Helens Marine Rescue Association will be held at the marine rescue
building at the St Helens wharf on Friday 17 June at 2.30pm. Media are invited to
attend and picture opportunities will be available.

Access to Georges Bay has become safer with dredging at Pelican Point now complete, providing better and safer access for larger boats to enter Georges Bay to unload their fish catch or to re-fuel.

During the first stage of the project (2009) more than 200,000 cubic metres of sand was removed from the entrance to Georges Bay . The second stage was significantly delayed following an objection by the Department of Environment, but the dredging finally commenced in March 2011 and 5,000 cubic metres of sand was pumped from Pelican Point to restore the channel depth to 2.2 metres at this location. Just in time for the scallop season too!

The dredging was commissioned by Marine and Safety Tasmania.