The Hawke's Bay Coastguard is concerned about inexperienced and ill-prepared boaties putting their lives at risk, following a callout to Haumoana yesterday.
It was the fifth callout for a boat in trouble between the Ngaruroro River and and Te Awanga in the last five weeks. The coastguard and Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter were called to Haumoana at 2.30pm after fears that a fisherman was drifting out to sea.
Police started receiving calls about the boat after a gale-force westerly squall passed over the region.
At the same time police were dealing with the missing boat they began to receive a string of calls from residents along the Westshore Esplanade reporting that two people were being blown out to sea.
Senior Sergeant Andy Sloane of Napier police said some callers said it appeared one of the pair - a male and female in a kayak and a surf ski - had capsized and was having difficulty climbing back aboard.
Another caller said they appeared like two dots being blasted toward Whirinaki.
Mr Sloane said the suddenness of the squall had caught the pair out, and police contacted lifeguards at the Westshore Surf Lifesaving Club.
"They (the pair) were quickly being blown further out to sea and were struggling trying to get back in."
Two lifeguards, Nick Swain and Shane Bennett, boarded the club's rigid inflatable rescue boat and headed out into the chopped-up sea and rain squall.
When they reached the couple it was clear they were close to exhaustion. Mr Sloane said they were equipped with crucial buoyancy vests, and the male kayaker had apparently been trying to shelter the woman on the surf ski from the worst of the conditions.
They were helped aboard and taken back to shore where they had left their car.
Hawke's Bay Coastguard president Dick Hilton said a Haumoana resident had contacted police after they saw a man in a dinghy being blown seaward.
People on shore had lost sight of the boat when it went through a squall, he said. Coastguard and the Lowe Corporation rescue helicopter went to the area and spent three hours searching the coastline and sea.
Mr Hilton said the national rescue communication centre had called the search off after 4pm because they felt it had been established that the small fishing boat had been towed to shore before rescue services arrived.
"It's a concern, what with this being the fourth or fifth incident between Ngarurororo River mouth and Te Awanga, where people have gone out in small dinghies and got into trouble and there has been one fatality," he said.
Peter Tafaofale, 36, from Auckland, drowned on December 17 at the Clive River mouth after the boat he was in capsized. Mr Hilton said people should let someone know where they were going, when they were due back and to wear lifejackets.
"We have had two small boats capsize out there when the conditions were fairly bad and they were not wearing lifejackets. They (boaties) are going out in conditions that experienced boaties would not go out in," he said.
He said yesterday's search had cost "a lot of money" and the national rescue communication centre would have to pay for the time that both the helicopter and the coastguard were out.
"The guy didn't realise there was a rescue for him going on. A couple of hours later he's heard about the helicopters and thought maybe they are looking for me," said Mr Hilton.
Helicopter pilot Brent Williams said they preferred to go out even if it was nothing, rather than take the risk that someone would be alright.
TOP STORY: Boaties risk lives: Expert
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