Raglander Mark Lloyd almost missed the broken-down 5.5 metre aluminium boat with seven men on board. It was floating seaward off the Raglan coast in gale force offshore winds on Monday night (20.01.2014).
“They were very lucky boys I’d say,” Mr Lloyd said after unloading his vessel Tamahine’s catch at Raglan Wharf yesterday. Mr Lloyd and his deckhand were on the way home from a three-day fishing trip when they spotted the overcrowded boat near Jackson’s Reef. It was about 8.30pm and the remnants of Cyclone June started to wind up over the region. “It was a very dark boat . . . We got to them about 15 minutes before dark.” The men were “very anxious”.
The northeasterly wind was forecast to increase that afternoon and it strengthened as darkness came and he estimated it was nearly 100kmh as Tamahine towed the boat shoreward.
Mr Lloyd said he contacted the coastguard for assistance and Gallagher Rescue collected the cold but uninjured crew and took them to Raglan Wharf.
Raglan Coastguard spokesman Kevin Dreaver said while the men had lifejackets on board, they could have kept drifting through the night and been blown out to sea. Coastguard Operations Centre did receive a call from a family member at 8.55pm who said a boat had broken down off Raglan Harbour.
Spokeswoman Georgie Smith said the vessel had limited and unreliable communications on board, making contact impossible. “The broken-down vessel was ill prepared for the weather conditions and had limited and unreliable means of communications on board.”
She encouraged boaties to carry two forms of waterproof communications because “if you can’t contact us, we can’t rescue you”. “Logging a trip report with coastguard is a great way of telling someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.”