Coastguard Bluff was started in 1997 by a group of local commercial fishermen who wanted to provide search and rescue assistance to vessels operating in the Foveaux Strait area. Originally called Southern Volunteer Coastguard Inc. the name was changed to Coastguard Bluff in 2004.

In the early days Coastguard Bluff used boats owned by volunteers for their search and rescue operations. In 2004 Coastguard New Zealand (CNZ) was gifted a number of Americas Cup chase boats by Team New Zealand, and we were loaned the vessel under a bailment agreement. ‘NZAS Rescue’ was sponsored by the local aluminium smelter. In 2010 this was replaced by an 8.5m Naiad vessel also owned by CNZ.

In 2012 we began the process to build our current 12m Barnett Offshore Design custom rescue vessel with a design paid for by the Southern Region. With the help of a dedicated local fundraising committee chaired by Jon Turnbull, $1.2 million was raised for the build. Bluff Rescue was built by Icon Custom Boats of Kaiapoi, after an extensive bid process.