Edward (Ed) Bezett
Coastguard Marlborough
Ed's impact on Coastguard Marlborough has been transformative, both in operational excellence and community engagement. His extensive involvement has redefined unit processes and enhanced the volunteer experience. As Unit Training Coordinator, he has meticulously developed comprehensive and engaging plans for volunteers, ensuring their rapid progression through the learning management system. His background in adult education has enabled him to create focused and enjoyable training sessions, which have led to new volunteers, especially young recruits, becoming fully engaged and quickly advancing their skills.
Ed is an exemplary role model through his actions, both on and off the water. As a Master of both rescue vessels, he consistently demonstrates professionalism and calmness under pressure, setting a high standard for his crew. His involvement in regional and national Coastguard meetings has allowed him to share his insights and influence broader practices, benefiting the entire organisation.
Andrew (Andy) Thornton
Coastguard North Canterbury
As someone who builds and drives tour jet boats, Andy has a wealth of knowledge about them, especially ones used in braided rivers. This is crucial as a lot of North Canterbury’s operational area includes braided river locations. Since Andy took special interest in the unit’s new swift and flood water initiative, he spearheaded the plan to build a specialist swift water rescue vessel and truck to tow and transport crew, as well as writing the training and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the swift water unit.
He has been the driving force to obtain the right assets and develop the right training, ensuring Coastguard North Canterbury has the right people in the right place with the right tools and equipment. Andy leads the unit’s Swift Water team from the front and is always the first person to literally jump into the water showing the rest of the team how it’s done.
Graham Weakley
Coastguard Wellington
Graham is an immensely positive figure around Coastguard Wellington, respected as a ‘fount of all knowledge’ and a ‘legend’. He continually strives to improve the unit – its processes, equipment and people, especially training other volunteers. He created the Qualified and Senior Crew training cohorts to uplift the unit’s skill and experience level, managing and running multiple weekly trainings (2-3 per week, and 1-2 additional weekend trainings). He goes above and beyond what is expected of a volunteer, using his 20+ years of boating and Coastguard experience, as well as his skills as a former commercial skipper to raise the bar.
As an example, Graham recently attended the tow of a large 40-foot fishing vessel in a 9m rescue vessel, a potentially tricky situation due to the narrow marina entrance. However, he calmly instructed the crew to raft up the vessel, and confidently drove it into their berth, talking the other volunteers through his actions, providing a valuable learning opportunity.