If your radio has DSC, press the red distress button first. Then on VHF channel 16: say MAYDAY three times and your boat’s name three times, then your position, what’s wrong, how many people are on board and the help you need. Say “OVER” and listen. No radio? Call 111, ask for Police, say “Boat emergency, I’m on the water,” and give the same details in the same order.
Then let go of the transmit button and listen. In New Zealand, channel 16 is monitored 24/7 by Maritime NZ’s Maritime Operations Centre, and Maritime NZ says a trained operator will take your call “within about a minute”. Whoever answers needs these details in this order, so have them ready. If nobody answers, call again. You don’t need a VHF certificate to make a distress call.
The two calls exist so that channel 16 carries distress traffic only when it’s real. Picking the right one isn’t about manners: it decides how every station that hears you reacts.
Grave and imminent danger to the boat or a life: sinking, fire, person overboard, serious injury.
Everyone who hears it must stop transmitting and help if they can. Never make a false Mayday.
Urgent, but no immediate danger to life: a dead motor near a bar or rocks, a boat drifting toward a hazard, a medical problem that isn’t critical yet.
Same structure, with “PAN-PAN” three times instead. If nobody’s life is at risk and you just need a hand back, see broken down: who to call.
Plenty of tinnies, kayaks and jet skis carry no VHF at all. Then the call is 111. Say Police when the operator asks which service, then “Boat emergency, I’m on the water”, name the place in words (“Hauraki Gulf, near Waiheke Island”), and give the same items in the same order: who you are, where, what’s wrong, how many people, and whether everyone’s wearing a lifejacket. Coastguard’s own advice: “In an emergency, dial 111 and ask for Police.” Police then task Coastguard. Read your latitude and longitude off a GPS app rather than describing the shoreline. 111 is free, even with no credit, and you can’t text 111 unless you’ve registered for the deaf and speech-impaired service.
If you have a radio, it comes first. Maritime NZ says mobile phones “are only helpful if kept dry and when used close to land”, and Police say coverage in marine areas is unlikely to be reliable: “If boating, take a marine VHF radio.” Channel 16 also reaches every boat listening nearby. Offshore, or for a beacon problem, the Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) answers on 0508 472 269, or +64 4 577 8030 from outside New Zealand. More in how to call Coastguard and crossing a bar safely.
By phone, the app dials 111 in New Zealand waters and shows a six-step script of what to say, opening with “Police. Boat emergency, I’m on the water,” with your position read out in words. In radio mode it shows this Mayday form filled in with your boat’s name, callsign in the NATO alphabet, MMSI and live position, plus DSC and Pan-Pan guidance. It doesn’t transmit anything itself and isn’t connected to Police, Coastguard or RCCNZ: you read the words on your own radio or phone. It doesn’t replace the radio or the training; it replaces the remembering. See how it works →