General News
27 February, 2026
Rapid new coast guard boat
TULLY Coast Guard’s new rescue boat is now at its new home and the volunteer squad is over the moon.
“The wait is over – it has arrived”, the proud squad announced on its social media and most followers would have known it meant their shiny new, bigger and faster vessel had finally been delivered to the Coast Guard’s Hull Heads base.
“The new boat is 9.1m,” Tully Coast Guard commander Marcus Thomas told The Observer.
“It has twin 300-horsepower engines and it’s got every bit of technology under the sun,” he said.
Acquiring the new vessel took about three years, and “got held up a bit with politics”, Mr Thomas said, but it should be ready for full commissioning and become operational within three to four weeks.
Its high-tech equipment includes a radio detector, thermal imaging camera and radar. In the right conditions its top speed is around 46 knots – or 85 km/h.
“The radio detector is something new, it’s for when you can barely get a signal, so you can’t hear them, but the detector will pick up and give you a direction.”
The replacement boat’s state-of-the art equipment also has an auto-pilot function with automatic trim tabs for smoother rides and it is networked with other rescue agencies.
“My understanding is the Water Police could actually send a search and rescue chart to the boat and press a button and away we go.”
While search and rescue operations are a rarity, the Coast Guard at Tully spends the great bulk of its time going out to tow boats that are broken down and similar missions.
“Ninety-nine% of what we do, people that are broken down before it gets the emergency situation, yeah,” Mr Thomas said.
“The bread and butter is still very much going out and helping people come back in when they’re stuck,” he said.
In the meantime, the Coast Guard’s volunteer crews will complete training on the new vessel and a new ‘charter party agreement’ has to be put in place before it’s expected to become operational by about mid-March.
Tully Coast Guard is currently at the final stages of transitioning to become part of Marine Rescue Queensland, whose name and insignia are on the new boat.
“TU21 (that’s the call sign) will soon be coming to a boat ramp near you, so you can have a closer look,” the Coast Guard posted.
“The vessel is white and not yellow as previous coast guard vessels and this reflects our impending move to Marine Rescue Queensland who provided the vessel but that is a story for another post.”
Mr Thomas said that there had been some “perennial” discussion about whether the new rescue boat should also be able to operate out of Clump Point at Mission Beach, further to the north and on the other side of the Hull River.
But he says, it’s all about finding volunteer boat crews who are willing to do the mandatory training to be able to operate the vessel.
“If they want us to move to Clump Point then they will need to train up six coxswains, 12 crew and 20-plus people to do radio duty.”
The new vessel, which will be officially named when it is commissioned, will replace the 25-year-old, 8m Mary Liddle – which will be officially farewelled shortly after the commissioning.
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