Angler survives late-night ordeal

A fisherman whose boat sank in the middle of the night was so determined not to surrender it that he swam the waterlogged vessel nearly 1km to safety.

Dave Stanley, a truck driver from Tauranga, said his close call in calm conditions was a cautionary tale for those who were too relaxed at sea.

The 47-year-old had been fishing at Okurei Pt near Maketu in the Bay of Plenty when he decided to head for shore late on Monday night.

However, the outboard motor on his 4.3m fibreglass boat failed, and with a friend towing him on a jetski, they struck the treacherous sandbar in the Maketu estuary. A hole formed in the side of his vessel and water quickly began spilling in.

"It was as benign as you could imagine, a swell of about half a metre. The nicest day on the planet, but it wasn't meant to end like this," said Mr Stanley.

His friend Rob MacGregor motored ahead but alerted the volunteer coastguard and Maketu Fire Brigade when Mr Stanley had not arrived on land two hours later.

In that time Mr Stanley was pulled from one sandbar to another by the tide. Desperate to salvage his vessel, an old racing boat, he tied a rope between himself and the partly submerged hull, and doggedly swam closer to shore.

Eight volunteers in Maketu rose from their beds at 12.30am to help the fisherman.

They found a wetsuited Mr Stanley in shallow water, but his boat had sunk, with just the bow peeking above the surface. The fire brigade ferried him ashore, and his boat was salvaged by the coastguard in an operation that took 2 hours.

Mr Stanley said he never felt his life was in peril, but was worried about the strong, swirling currents which dragged him off the sandbar into deeper waters.

Chief fire officer Shane Beech told the Herald the fisherman lacked safety equipment and knowledge of the coastline. The boat, powered by a 15-horsepower outboard, had no navigational lights or a VHF radio. Mr Stanley also had no mobile phone.

"If he had lost his footing or been dragged out to sea it could have been a different story," said Mr Beech.

"It was hardly the eye of the storm, but something must have gone majorly wrong to be coming back at that time of night."

Mr Beech said the sandbar was notoriously dangerous, catching out and tipping as many as 20 boats every summer.

Mr Stanley said it was a good lesson to always fish with a friend.

"Everyone has to know their craft's limitations. You just hope you never have to realise them. It turned a beautiful day's fishing into a whole lot of people giving me a hand."