Caloundra Coast Guard’s pleas for help have been answered after they were hemmed in by sand at low tide.
The rescue group has acquired a new boat that can traverse extremely shallow water within the clogged Pumicestone Passage.
The arrival of the 5.5m vessel, which has a draft of just 400mm, was a response to the expanding tidal breakthrough at Bribie Island in January, which led to sand obstructing the waterway and restricting the Coast Guard.
Spits emerged either side of their Tripcony Lane headquarters, with one to the north at Happy Valley and one to the south between Bribie Island and Golden Beach.
Caloundra Coast Guard commander Roger Pearce said the new boat was “game changing”.
“It gives us access to areas of the passage that we weren’t able to get to because of the depth of the water,” he said.
“The beauty of the new boat is if we do hit a bit of sand, we can just jump out and pull it over the bar and off we go again.
“It means we can get to almost any situation, even if it’s an incident up Bells Creek.
“We can actually go to areas we’ve never been able to traverse before.”
The boat is worth $55,000.
“We knew (after the breakthrough) that we had an issue, so we approached the State Government for a grant,” Mr Pearce said.
“They agreed to it … and the Caloundra Power Boat Club topped up the difference.”
The vessel was named in honour of the club and was officially blessed at a ceremony during the weekend. It’s already been utilised.
“We’ve done two rescues with it in the last two weeks, and it’s proved to be extremely reliable,” Mr Pearce said.
The boat can be crewed by three, can accommodate five and has side ropes to support 15 people in serious circumstances.
It can move at 25 knots and can travel as far as five nautical miles offshore.
Caloundra Coast Guard now has three vessels, which are 10.4m long (with a 900mm draft), 7.5m (700mm) and 5.5m (400mm).
The first is based at a member’s property at Lamerough Creek, while the other two are generally launched from the Caloundra Power Boat Club.
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