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Police have been receiving around 15 emergency calls a day from boaties in trouble - a figure that would be reduced if people maintained their boats properly over the winter months.
Inspector Gary Hill from the Northern Police Communications Centre said that since Boxing Day, the centre had been dealing with about 10 emergency calls a day from Turangi north - a fairly typical number of calls for this time of year.
He said a lot of the boats had got into trouble because they had been poorly maintained over the winter months.
A large number of the rescues to date had been caused by boats running out of fuel, breaking down or taking on water.
"People get to their holiday location, crank up their boat and just head straight out without checking it and we are getting all sorts of dramas," he said.
"A lot of it is time consuming because a lot of them don't have communications and the ones that do, their cellphone cuts out halfway through the call and all this sort of stuff.
"It makes it hard for emergency services to try and locate them on the water."
He said all boats should have lifejackets, flares, communications and other equipment such as fire extinguishers on board.
"People need to make sure they maintain their boats during the year rather than leaving it until they get to their holiday locations and jump in and head straight out.
"From our point of view, we see the same thing day in and day out and it just gets a bit frustrating."
