Dead man's lifejacket saves mates

By NATASHA HARRIS

Two fishermen used their dead friend's lifejacket to survive the sinking of a fishing boat off Oamaru today.

They clung together to stay afloat while huge waves and 40-knot winds tossed them about for three hours until rescuers found them.

One man is dead and two others are still missing, feared drowned, after the 6m aluminium pleasure boat Time Out sank 14km off Kakanui Point, between Oamaru and Moeraki.

The survivors told their rescuers that their boat started taking on water at 10.15am but only one man managed to grab a lifejacket before all five had to jump into the water.

Terry Knight, of the National Rescue Coordinations Centre, said that after the man with the lifejacket drowned one of his friends took it in order to survive.

Another friend clung to him for support.

The dead man, aged in his 60s, was found floating just a few hundred metres away from where the two men were rescued.

Maritime Safety Authority director Russell Kilvington said the men were "just a group of mates fishing for the weekend".

Hopes were fading tonight that the missing men could survive in the 11C water.

One was the brother of the dead man.

"After five or six hours in the water and no lifejackets, the prospects of finding them alive are pretty remote ... There's really not that much hope, I have to say," Mr Kilvington said.

Conditions were "extremely wild" with seas whipped up by a 40-knot southwesterly gale.

The National Rescue Coordination Centre, which supervised the rescue, believe the boat started taking on water after a rope got wrapped around the propeller shaft.

"The rope obviously immobilised the boat and with the big sea and a 40-knot wind, several waves went aboard the back of the boat and swamped it," Mr Knight said.

"They probably didn't have time to get any gear ...

"I think it all happened too fast and they found themselves in the water."

But police said the boat might have sunk after all five men went to the stern and tried to free a fishing line which had been wrapped around the boat's propeller.

The men, aged in their 30s and 60s - one from Oamaru, one from Dunedin and three from Timaru - ended up adrift in the icy waters.

"The water conditions out there are very cold at this time of year," Acting Sergeant Lynda Eaton, of Oamaru, said.

Conditions had been "perfect" with flat seas when the men set out from Oamaru at 7.15am but conditions cut up rough about 10am.

The pair were "extremely distraught" and were likely to remain in Oamaru Hospital overnight.

A hospital spokesman said the pair were in a comfortable condition tonight.

A beacon the two men activated helped to save their lives after they were not able to put out an emergency call on the boat.

Several passing aircraft contacted the National Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington at 10.15am. It took the centre 45 minutes to locate exactly the beacon signal.

But Dunedin search and rescue authorities want to know why it took almost three hours for rescuers to reach the boat.

Police search and rescue co-ordinator Sergeant Brian Benn, who was involved in winching the three men into the helicopter, will be making inquires into the time it took for rescuers to be advised of the incident.

"There's a few things about the call-out procedure that I'm not happy with.

"We will be looking into why there were delays."

However, Mr Knight said, "Everything was done as soon as possible".

Two helicopters and at least four boats were used in a search for the men.

Some debris was spotted.

A Dunedin-based rescue helicopter pinpointed the beacon's Global Positioning System transponder and three of the men about midday.

Lion Foundation rescue helicopter pilot Graeme Gale said the men were "very lucky" they had the beacon.

The two were winched up just after 1pm and paramedic Doug Flett treated them for moderate hypothermia.

"They were still conscious but very, very weak. They wouldn't have lasted much longer. They were able to tell us that three other men were in the sea ... They were obviously stunned."

The men were then taken to Moeraki and on to Oamaru Hospital by ambulance.

St John Ambulance Waitaki district manager Terry Kent said both survivors were very cold, shivering and shaking when they arrived at Moeraki search base.

Acting Senior Constable Bruce Dow, of Palmerston, said the boat was well equipped for an emergency with a marine radio, cellphone, flares, the emergency beacon and GPS.