Crowds enjoy watching luxury launch refloated

Recovering the Toria from the waters off Bucklands Beach took about 12 hours yesterday. Photo / Andre Steyn

Talk about that sinking feeling. The owners of a luxury motor launch that sank in Auckland after a collision with another yacht watched glumly as the boat was pulled from the water.

Hundreds of onlookers gathered on Bucklands Beach yesterday to watch as the Toria was refloated by personnel from the Auckland Harbourmaster's office and the Coastguard.

The 18.8m launch collided with another yacht at 10pm on Saturday - punching a one-metre hole in its bow - and sank in shallow water.

Harbourmaster duty officer Mark Davis said the other boat was not damaged and no one was injured.

"We started refloating it at 4am [yesterday]. We sent divers down, then brought out the barge with a crane to slowly lift it to the surface and then we pumped the water out."

The boat was afloat again by 5pm.

Onlooker Michelle Dellabarca said: "It was quite a sight. There were lots and lots of people just watching on the beach. The dairy made a lot of sales of icecream, that's for sure."

She said the owners of the vessel were also watching on the beach and seemed "gutted" because the boat looked very expensive.

More than 100 people dining at the Beach House restaurant watched the launch sink on Saturday night.

Manager Save Thesa said all the diners were told they would "be entertained" and soon everyone was on the deck watching - including all the kitchen staff.

"It was great entertainment. Last week we had whale-watching, this week we had a boat sinking. It will be hard to top that."

Mr Thesa said there was a 1m-square hole in the Toria's bow and the vessel sank in about half an hour.

"It was sinking by its right side, but the whole thing was over pretty quickly. It was a pretty cool thing to watch."