Last week's double kayaking death on Lake Wakatipu has prompted closer, more formalised ties between Queenstown's Coastguard and commercial boat operators after two meetings earlier this week.
Frenchmen Yoann Firdion (24) and Raphael Soubrier (21) were found dead in the lake early last Tuesday after a three-hour night-time grid search involving commercial boat operators, the volunteer Coastguard, a Te Anau helicopter and the Queenstown Lakes District Council harbourmaster.
Some aspects of the search were criticised.
Paraflights' Chris Bradley said yesterday the debriefing and the following three-hour meeting - open to commercial operators - was "productive".
"As we speak, council and the harbourmaster are working on a better action plan. We'll all work on figuring out a better, quicker approach. With the upcoming summer, we want it to run smoother, we want to nail it," Mr Bradley said.
"If we can learn something from every time we do a rescue then we're going forward ... everyone agreed we need a lot better systems," he said.
Mr Bradley said Paraflights' staff would now aim to volunteer an "hour here and there" on joint training with the Coastguard "to go through some local scenarios".
Last year, the company helped 25 people in "undocumented" rescues and staff constantly found people using the lake without lifejackets.
This week's meetings were chaired by Search and Rescue co-ordinator Senior Sergeant John Fookes, who said harbourmaster Marty Black had begun liaising with commercial operators to find out which skippers and vessels were available in an emergency and what their after-hours response times were.
"We're trying to identify people from the commercial sector willing to make themselves available to the Coastguard with the purpose of extending the Coastguard's available local knowledge."
He said it was hoped commercial operators would begin to undertake formal aspects of Coastguard training and a local skipper could be appointed to liaise with Coastguard's operations manager.
Commercial operators' day-to-day, specific knowledge of the lake and its conditions was a key part of opening up lines of communication with the Coastguard - information sharing that would bolster both groups' understanding of the lake and streamline emergency call-out procedures.
Commercial operators, some of who had not been involved in last week's search, had expressed concern in the aftermath of the tragedy, many criticising what they saw as a slow response time that did not utilise enough commercial vessels.
Snr Sgt Fookes said the "public pontificating" of many commercial operators not involved in the latest rescue, who had based their opinions on "incomplete" knowledge of the search, was not "helpful".
However, both groups now better understood one another's roles and the meeting had been a positive step in ensuring future operations could yield the best possible outcome, he said.
Mr Black said the issue of moving the Coastguard's temporary launch site from Frankton Marina was not discussed in any depth but the consensus was the previously mooted Park St site at the Frankton Arm side of Queenstown Gardens was preferable to Queenstown Bay.
He said Queenstown Bay was too busy with water traffic in summer, which could slow down rescue operations.
