Allan Hall knew it could have been worse, as he sat looking at his semi-submerged 13m launch Tight Five at Mill Bay, Mangonui, on Tuesday.
"I thought she was a gonner," he said, after the boat had come close to sinking at her mooring on Monday evening. Air in the bow kept her partially afloat, but getting her to the relative safety of the jetty took some doing.
Far North Radio and Sea Rescue ferried a Mangonui Fire Brigade crew out to the mooring, an hour and a half of pumping in dark and rain lifting her enough to tow her closer to shore. A fire appliance was used to pull her in to the jetty when the tide rose, but almost 24 hours later she was still sitting with her stern on the bottom.
Meanwhile the mystery as to what caused Tight Five to take on water was solved when Tuesday night's low tide revealed a hole in her hull, just above the water line, presumably the result of a collision with another boat. A temporary patch was applied so she could be pumped out, and she was removed from the water at midnight.
Mr Hall was still unsure yesterday whether she would be repairable, a question that he expected to be decided by his insurer.
