KEY POINTS:
A rescue helicopter hovered in the dark with its main rotor blades only two or three metres from a 25m cliff face as it plucked a lone yachtsman to safety from a remote island in the Far North early yesterday.
The sailor, a 55-year-old from New Plymouth, had earlier rounded the top of the North Island from the west coast but lost his yacht, Gypsy Rose, when it hit rocks, grounded and sank off Moturoa Island, northwest of Cape Karikari.
Only the yacht's mast was left above the waterline after its sole occupant put out a distress call and took to a liferaft in the early hours of yesterday morning.
The Whangarei-based Northland Electricity rescue helicopter flew to a remote chain of small, uninhabited islands off the Karikari Peninsula northeast of Kaitaia after the sailor's distress call. Using night-vision goggles, the helicopter's three crewmen initially found only a mast sticking out of the sea near rocks at Moturoa Island.
"Then we saw a liferaft with a man in it about 500m away near the base of a big cliff on another island," helicopter crewman and advanced paramedic Mark Going said.
He said the liferaft was partially deflated and going down and they saw its occupant scramble on to rocks at the base of the cliff.
Chief pilot Peter Turnbull manoeuvred the big Sikorsky helicopter close to the cliff face before winchman Dave Hardy was sent down to bring the yachtsman safely up from the rocks.
"It was very dark. We were hovering with the blades only two or three metres from the cliff face above the 80 foot [24m] mark," Mr Going said.
He said the rescued man had lacerations and abrasions from the buffeting he'd taken after he left his boat. He was also suffering from the cold conditions, had no lifejacket and was dressed only in shorts - a result of the short time he had to react to get off the yacht when it hit the rocks.
The man was flown to Whangarei Hospital for a check-up. A hospital spokeswoman said he had been treated and discharged yesterday morning.
Mr Going described the rescue as "certainly a good outcome" to locate and rescue the man in the dark from under a cliff face.
A marker has been placed as a navigation warning to other vessels of the sunken yacht's location. It was not known last night whether a salvage attempt would be made to try to retrieve the yacht or equipment on it.
