Coastguard Dunedin buoyed by win

Coastguard Dunedin president Lox Kellas, of Portobello, savours the national award presented to the group by Water Safety New Zealand. Photo / Linda Robertson.

Installing a life ring at Cape Saunders has seen Coastguard Dunedin win a national water safety award.

Water Safety New Zealand presented Coastguard Dunedin president Lox Kellas with its annual prevention award at a ceremony in Wellington yesterday.

If not for the live-saving device placed at the cape last year, Dunedin residents David Moses, Cory Ferguson and Kane Harvey would most likely be dead.

Mr Moses and his 15-year-old step-son Kane were swept off rocks and into the sea when fishing at Cape Saunders with Mr Ferguson and his nephew Micah Wharerimu, 15, on May 27.

Mr Ferguson jumped in the water to save Mr Moses and Kane, while Micah retrieved the life ring, threw it in the water and alerted emergency services.

The three were winched to safety more than an hour later by the Otago Regional Rescue Helicopter crew, having floated with the life ring which was not recovered.

Senior Constable Kellas, of Portobello, welcomed the national recognition for Coastguard Dunedin.

He said the life ring was such a simple thing but it "paid dividends".

It was installed using a community board grant, following the death of a man fishing from Cape Saunders in 2010.

Since the May 27 incident, a replacement life ring had been installed at the cape and another two were donated to Coastguard Dunedin, which planned to put one at Puddingstone Rock and keep the other as a back-up.

In early August Mr Ferguson and Micah were awarded Dunedin Marine Search and Rescue and Water Safety New Zealand certificates for their efforts at Cape Saunders.