VHF Channel 16 · New Zealand

How to make a Mayday call

A Mayday call on VHF channel 16 is for when you are in serious and imminent danger and need immediate help. Here is the call, step by step, the way Maritime New Zealand sets it out. Read it now, so it is in your head before you ever need it.

When it is a real emergency, no one remembers the exact format. That is normal. The trick every good skipper uses is simple: do not rely on memory, read it off a sign mounted by your radio. That is what this call, and the sign further down, is built around.

Before you key the mic

Two things first, while you still can. Get your lifejacket on, and if your boat carries a distress beacon, activate it. Then go to the radio.

Set up the radio

Switch your VHF to full power and turn to channel 16, the international distress and calling channel. If you are on SSB instead, use 2182, 4125, 6215 or 8291 kHz.

The Mayday call, in order

Speak slowly and clearly. This is the exact sequence. The blue parts are your own boat details, which is the bit people stumble on under pressure.

Then listen

Wait a short time on the same channel for someone to answer. If no one replies, repeat the whole call. If you reach a shore station, tell them whether you have set off an EPIRB or PLB, and do what they tell you.

This is the procedure as published by Maritime New Zealand. It is the standard for recreational and commercial vessels in New Zealand waters.
Source: Maritime NZ, Radio a MAYDAY. Always check the current official guidance.

Put the script where it counts

The hardest lines to get out in a real emergency are your own boat name and call sign, said in the right order, while everything is going wrong around you. The fix is not to memorise harder. It is to have the call written down, in order, at the helm, with your details already on it.

Personalised VHF Mayday distress sign mounted on a boat dashboard in New Zealand

The Distress Sign

A custom VHF Mayday sign for your helm, with your boat name and call sign permanently built into the script. Marine grade, glare free, made in New Zealand. $45 NZD.

View the Distress Sign

Just bought a boat?

If you have just bought a boat, getting set up for the radio is part of the deal. Most new boat owners work through it in the same order: do your VHF operator certificate (the skipper's radio ticket), then get your call sign. In New Zealand your call sign is a unique ID for your boat, it starts with ZM, costs $60, and it is yours for life. It is a legal requirement for operating a VHF radio, and it is the detail Coastguard uses to find you if things go wrong.

Once you have your boat name and call sign sorted, that is exactly what goes on your distress sign, built into the script so it is ready at the helm from day one.