Nearly a decade on from pulling a shaking girl from the Manukau Harbour, Coastguard Papakura volunteer Rod Frost still thinks about that fateful night.

Frost was among the rescuers searching for 52-year-old William Ruarangi and his 8-year-old daughter after their aluminium boat was found empty and adrift on the afternoon of April 19, 2017.

As daylight faded, Coastguard crews from three local stations poured on to boats to search for the pair, while police and Westpac Rescue Auckland scanned the harbour by land and air.

The girl was rescued in the dark after treading water alone for three hours, with her calls helping Coastguard locate her in the freezing water.

Her father never made it home.

A week later, following days of extensive searches, surfcaster Cody Mckinnon found Ruarangi’s body at Wattle Bay during an after-work fishing trip with friends.

William Ruarangi, 52, drowned in the Manukau Harbour in April 2017 after his boat capsized while on a fishing trip with his 8-year-old daughter.

“What I remember most is the cry for help in the dead of night, in the dark,“ Frost told the Herald.

“You don’t forget that – the desperation in it, and then the scene that followed. That’s something that will stay with me.”

Frost, with Coastguard volunteers from Papakura, Waiuku and Titirangi, was honoured alongside the Auckland Air Patrol with the Rescue of the Year award at the Coastguard Northern Region Awards later that year.

But for those who live and work around Manukau Harbour, the rescue – and the recovery that followed – became yet another tragedy in the cycle of fatal craft-related incidents that have repeatedly unfolded on Auckland’s waterways.

“I keep coming back to the fact that they had lifejackets with them, but they just weren’t wearing them,” Frost said.

“It leaves you wondering how we get that message across better, that wearing a lifejacket can make a real difference to your chances of survival.”

Riki Minhinnick (Ngāti Te Ata Waiōhua), a kaitiaki (guardian) of the Manukau, said the scale of drownings in the harbour reached a tipping point after 12 people died in the year Covid-19 restrictions blanketing the city began easing.

“From September [20]21 to September 22 was probably the hardest and heaviest time I’ve ever had,” he told the Herald.

“Everybody went crazy. Everybody was on their boats, out in the water.”

Gemma Ferregel and her 10-year-old son Ryder Ferregel later drowned in November 2022 when Kevin McQuire’s boat capsized during a weekend scalloping trip on the harbour.

Ryder’s body was never found and two years later, McQuire was sentenced in the Auckland High Court after pleading guilty to two manslaughter charges.

In findings released after the deaths, Coroner Erin Wooley said Gemma and Ryder Ferregel’s chances of surviving the capsize “would have significantly increased” had they been wearing lifejackets.

Gemma Karen Ferregel and her 10-year-old son Ryder Ferregel drowned when their boat capsized in Manukau Harbour; Ryder's body was never recovered. Composite image / NZME, Supplied

Despite having them on board, none of the five people on McQuire’s boat were wearing one.

Again and again, coroners’ reports into boating deaths around Auckland have drawn attention to a common theme; people were ending up in the water without fitted lifejackets.

According to Water Safety New Zealand, every watercraft-related fatality on Auckland’s waterways between 2021 and 2025 involved somebody not wearing a lifejacket.

Under the region’s current Navigation Bylaw, people must be wearing a lifejacket on vessels 6m or less, although the skipper can decide otherwise at their discretion.

Auckland Council is now proposing changes that would require lifejackets to be worn on all small vessels while underway, removing that caveat in support of wider water safety efforts.

The proposal follows years of advocacy from first responders and water safety groups, who say too many lives have been lost in circumstances coroners have repeatedly deemed preventable.

Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Glen Scanlon believed the proposal was aimed at encouraging a behavioural shift among waterway users, rather than restricting activity on the water.

“The best thing to do for them, for their grandkids, for their own kids, is to actually get on the behavioural change and stick the lifejacket on,” he said.

“It’s too late when you’re in the water.”

Minhinnick said too many people still underestimated how quickly conditions on the Manukau could change, particularly communities unfamiliar with the harbour’s dangers.

“When you’re brought up around the Manukau, know the harbour, and are as diligent as you are, you’ve got to be better,” Minhinnick said.

“If you’re diligent, you’ve got a great chance. If you’re ignorant, then anything can hit you, even on a calm day.”

Frost said safe boating practices and lifejackets naturally went together, so Coastguard would continue educating communities “to make simple choices that can lead to much better outcomes if something goes wrong”.

In recent years, Minhinnick has worked alongside Coastguard, police, schools and stakeholder groups to push safety messaging deeper into communities who rely on the harbour for their kaimoana (seafood).

Part of that work has involved helping lifejackets become more visible, accessible and normal to wear.

While the legal change is an important step, Minhinnick said lasting change largely hangs on methods such as targeted education and awareness campaigns.

“We have to shape that in Auckland, our own hood, and make it a norm.”

Feedback on Auckland Council’s proposed changes can be submitted until June 7 via an online portal, in writing, by phone or in person.