About 6 years ago after a few drowning’s in the area, a community member and a former Sedgefield Lions Club member Karen Kritchmer proposed starting a life Saving Club to help locals and tourists to our beautiful coastline. During this time a concerned member, Dr Nico Van Aardt, approached then Lions Club President Mario Ferreria about donating a rescue craft to the Sedgefield Lions Club. The Lions Club then went through the process of engaging Station 23 Wilderness to look after the donated craft and to help with the response time to any emergency should the need arise. Station 23 agreed and accepted the donation with open arms. The only proviso was that the craft had to be stationed in Sedgefield. That was the moment when momentum gathered and the entire community of Sedgefield became a proud supporter of Sea Rescue and especially Station 23. For the past 6 years we had been working out of a container which had been donated by Valley Containers at no charge. This had been adequate, but it had always been difficult and sometime risky working out of such limited space.Since the rescue equipment has been donated to Sea Rescue there has been 27 Operations, 1 life Saved and 15 Lives assisted.With the deterioration of the craft and equipment being housed in the container, and the Sedgefield beaches becoming busier, it became evident that we needed a better long term solution to house the generously donated equipment; as we all know it’s very expensive to replace.So story about a possible permanent structure was born about 2 years ago to house the Sea Rescue equipment and to have a quicker and safer response to an emergency, as well as to keep our equipment in a cleaner safer environment. A piece of land was identified at Myoli Beach (where we stand today). Once we had the approval in principal from the Knysna municipality we put the plans in place to see if we could raise the necessary funds to build this structure. After many fundraisers and local productions, like the Melodrama, the local community responded with generosity, and the necessary funds were raised to build the Boathouse.The plans for the Sea Rescue Boat House at Myoli Beach had been approved, and the building commenced 2 months ago.
We would like to thank all involved in making this project a reality, namely Dr Nico Van Aardt, Mario Ferreria and the Sedgefield Lions Club, the local community of Sedgefield and the Knysna Municipality.
Dr Nico Van Aardt cuts the ribbon for the opening of the boathouse
Torsten Henschel saying a few words
The Wilderness crew
The new boathouse
