Busy day for Napier Harbour Master as fishing boat beaches on sandbar

It took two attempts before the fishing boat was pulled off the sandbar. Photo / Supplied.

It was a sticky situation for a fishing boat as it ended up wedged on the sandbar at the Napier estuary yesterday afternoon. A witness said the boat's skipper attempted to enter the estuary too close to shore and it became stuck.

Local fisherman Perry Parslow said he was heading down to clean his boat near Shed 2 at 12.30pm when he noticed the fishing boat in an unusual position.

"I'm in and out of there all the time, we do crayfish pots quite often and, you just don't go there, I don't know what he was doing there, he wouldn't have been very happy.

"There is actually a deeper part of the channel and it's marked by lights so you know the deeper part of the channel, you don't see them get stuck here very often."

Parslow said it was unusual to enter the estuary towards the edge of the channel, as most boats would go through the middle where it is deeper.

"You go closer to the centre of the channel, obviously the closer you are to the middle the deeper it is, the closer you get to the shore the shallower it gets, he was just too close to the shore."

Fellow boaties rushed to aid the beached vessel and it took two attempts to free it from the sandbar.

"The rope snapped the first time, then they reattached it and pulled him out on the second attempt."

The fishing boat known as the Magge was tugged off the sandbar by one of Hawke's Bay Seafood's boats.

Hawke's Bay Regional Council Harbour Master Martin Moore confirmed the boat was pulled to safety and there was no serious damage.

Earlier that day the regional council was also called to another strange occurrence where a boat was resting on the ocean floor, still attached to its mooring in the Napier Harbour.

Referred to the launch as a "rust-bucket" by Moore, he believed something in the hull had finally given way, causing the boat to go under.

It's understood there was a party onboard the boat on Saturday night.

Moore said he was waiting for professional divers to assess the situation before the boat would be lifted out to make a rusted resurrection to the surface again.

"We're going to be lifting it out early tomorrow morning once we get the all clear."

"We don't believe any oil or diesel is leaking from the boat, but we've put a pollution boom around it just for an extra precaution, but I don't think this boat has left its mooring for a long time."

"The owner of the boat has been missing in action, so it's up to the city council to track them down."

The Napier City Council made several attempts to contact the owner, but calls went unanswered.