No help for boatie duo in danger

A Kaitaia man who reportedly declined the offer of being winched from a sinking six-metre Ramco boat between Scott Point and Twilight Beach on Monday last week claimed that a commercial boat was just 20 minutes away, but did not respond to a call for assistance.

The man, who did not wish to be named, was reported last week as having stuck with the sinking boat until he and his companion, his brother-in-law, were washed off after it flipped and swam ashore (Reluctant rescuees are safe and well, June 4).

According to the rescue helicopter crew only the bow remained above the water by the time they arrived, but the two men did not wish to be winched off, staying with it until they were washed off and swam ashore.

On Thursday he said they had seen a commercial boat "just around the corner", but no help came from that quarter after their motor failed and they used their marine radio to contact authorities. Their call was picked up by the Marine Operations Centre in Wellington, which contacted the police.

That call was picked up at 1.45pm, the Marine Operations Centre losing contact an hour later.

"He [the commercial boat] would have been 20 minutes away," the man said, adding that he had been told that the operator of that boat routinely responded to calls for help by turning his radio off.

He also disputed two of the reported facts - he and his brother-in-law, from Whangarei, who owned the boat, had launched at Scott Point, not Te Paki Stream, and they had not come ashore at Te Waiawa Bay. He had struck out for shore before the boat flipped, and was then followed by his companion.

They had clambered on to rocks then climbed some 30 or 40 metres, up a cliff and around a hill, to where their partners stood watching.

The pair had not been fishing, but had set out for Cape Maria van Diemen before heading back to Scott Point. Conditions had not been "that bad", he said. The swell had been a little over a metre although it did increase. Every 10 or 15 minutes they encountered a bigger set, but apart from that conditions had been relatively calm.

They had found themselves in difficulty when their motor failed.

He also rejected reports that police had been trying to locate them. They had given the police two phone numbers, he said, and he had been at the Kaitaia police station on Wednesday, "and nothing was mentioned".