Boatie admits causing death of Christchurch woman Mary McKee in Bermuda but is cleared of manslaughter

Mary McKee, inset, was knocked unconscious and drowned after two boats crashed in Hamilton Harbour in 2017. Photo / Getty Images - New Zealand Herald

A boatie who admitted causing a horrific boat crash in Bermuda that killed a New Zealand woman there to watch the America's Cup yacht race has been cleared of manslaughter.

Christchurch woman Mary Elizabeth McKee, 62, died on June 1 last year when the 2.7m semi-inflatable boat she was on was run over by a 5m boat in Hamilton Harbour.

Local man Andrew Lake, 27, was charged but denied manslaughter at the Supreme Court in Bermuda.

After a two-week trial, Lake was cleared of manslaughter but admitted causing McKee's death by reckless driving and injuring two other people by dangerous driving, The Royal Gazette reported.

Lake, the newspaper reported, has been sentenced to eight months, suspended for two years, along with 100 hours of community service.

During the trial, husband Arthur McKee recounted the terrible night he lost his wife.

"I just remember something horrendous happening," the Royal Gazette reported him saying.

"I came to in the bilge of the boat, in the well. I looked up and there was no one else on the boat, and it was so dark.

"I recall screaming for Mary. I was trying to call her, trying to find her. I couldn't see any boats around me either."

The McKees had travelled to Bermuda during the America's Cup racing regatta to watch the event.

The Royal Gazette reported that McKee died after she was knocked unconscious and drowned after the boat she was in was hit by another in Hamilton Harbour.

The McKees and several others had been dining on shore before returning to their boat around 10.30pm, transported there on smaller boats.

McKee explained to the court they were not wearing lifejackets but the night was still and the water was "like glass".

"When we got into the channel, it was really black and dark on the water. There was no moon that night," he said.

Standing at the front of the boat and peering out for obstacles in the water, McKee did not see the boat that hit them and only remembered a "horrendous" noise.

McKee told the court he turned his head and the other boat hit them, fracturing his skull and cracking his jaw in the impact.

It sent him flying through the air and he lost consciousness in the bilge of the boat.

He was picked up by another boat after he came to, but his wife was nowhere to be seen.

"I told them not to worry about me. I said, 'I have got to find Mary — she's still in the water'," McKee said.

"They went around looking for her in the water, but it was just so black. They were asking me questions and I kept repeating myself.

"I had no idea what hit us, how it hit us. I just couldn't work out that something like this happened or could have happened."

He remembers "screaming" out for his wife but McKee couldn't see her in the water.

By the time she was located by another boat, she had drowned. McKee wasn't told of his wife's death until he was in hospital.