A powerboat was holed and capsized, throwing its occupants into the Tauranga Harbour this afternoon.
Harbour patrols and coastguard attended the sunken vessel in the main shipping channel at about 2.30pm. A barge was used to salvage the vessel.
It is believed four people were aboard the 16 ft boat when it struck trouble. When salvaged it had substantial damage to the hull under the waterline and the outboard engine was missing from the stern.
No injuries were reported. Some of the occupants were returned to shore by boats attending the scene.
Rescue and salvage efforts were not helped by some boats returning to harbour travelling too fast and close, creating hazardous wakes at the scene.
4 comments
Harbour By laws
Posted on 27-02-2017 13:21 | By sobeit
The Harbourmaster and his enforcement regime would be more gainfully employed enforcing speed rules than lifejacket rules.
Got to agree sobeit
Posted on 27-02-2017 17:08 | By Darth Vader NZ
Sobeit, I got to agree with you 100% the speed of boaties in Tga harbour is like watching a rodeo far to many boaties continually travel at high speeds past moored boats what I witnessed Saturday throughout the harbour is nothing but outright lawless behaviour and the harbourmaster needs to be on the water over the weekends to take action against the cowboys out there. Its good that all onboard the boat are safe
Darth Vader, sobeit, do you know the marine rules that apply?
Posted on 27-02-2017 18:01 | By Murray.Guy
Looking at the photo is would appear the barge is in the channel, and it doesn't appear to have any hazard warning associated with it. A larger boat will create a significant wake and still be further than the minimum 50 meters distance from a moored vessel. An approaching vessel returning from fishing or other would be likely totally unaware of the retrieval (a few may have heard a marine broadcast advisory) until closer, if at all. The perception of speed and or the reality of speed, is not in itself illegal. The channel is not The Mall, Pilot Bay.
Traffic control is harbour patrol's job
Posted on 27-02-2017 18:44 | By Reefer
I saw this and it was clear to any reasonable thinking person that the barge, the big Coastguard boat and the two harbour patrol boats were hard at work sorting the problem, a large white upside down boat on the edge of the shipping channel. some of the other boats slowed and kept clear, some just charged on through. Selfish and arrogant. Worse, the harbour patrol boats should have been onto it, making themselves useful on traffic control and putting on their flashy lights etc. The salvage barge and the Coastguard are equipped, trained and qualified to assist. The harbour patrol is meant to be just that. They need to re-assess their station during incidents such as this, go do their job properly. As for the rest of the boating public, show some basic manners when you come across an incident on the water.
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