Budding pirate's voyage scuttled

A budding pirate has had his career scuppered early when his commandeered vessel ran aground before it could reach the high seas off the Bay of Plenty coast.

The 32-year-old man set sail and raised the Jolly Roger flag on 16m yacht Rufus Gutz yesterday, the Bay of Plenty-based website www.sunlive.co.nz reported.

However, soon afterwards he stranded the yacht on a sandbar at the floodgate to the Maketu Estuary, near the Kaituna River mouth.

When the Coastguard arrived he told his rescuers he had only just bought the steel-hulled yacht.

"We managed to pull him off and get him back to the jetty. When the owner turned up he jumped overboard and started swimming," said Shane Beech from the Maketu Coastguard.

"He swam across the other side and high-tailed it towards Papamoa. He got a few hundred metres down the beach before the policemen got a hold of him."

The yacht's owner, Peter Newton, said he had declined the man's offer to buy the boat the night before. The next he heard was that his boat was stuck on the sandbar with the pirate ensign raised and a wind sock on the boat's mast.

He believed the man was planning to sail down the coast.

"He didn't even get the motor going. He was trying to get it out on the sail, which even a world-class yachtie wouldn't attempt.

"He had no idea at all really. Thank God he didn't get to the bar," Mr Newton said.

The man was apprehended by police and has been referred to psychiatric services.

- NZPA