Four-hour bailing battle fails to save fishing boat

Shane Wakelin watched helplessly through the darkness from a liferaft as his fishing boat disappeared into the sea.

"I couldn't believe what had happened. It's a bit surreal."

The Nelson fisherman and his single crewmate fought for hours trying to bail the 17m Challenger II after it starting taking on water off the West Coast.

In the end, they had to abandon the vessel, with a full load of fish, about 3.45am on Saturday and climb into the liferaft in 2m swells to await rescue.

"Not very good at all, really. It's sort of everything I have got there," Mr Wakelin said of his prized boat.

"It didn't take long to happen, and once it happened, I couldn't do anything - it was too far gone.

"I battled for a good three or four hours, doing everything we could [to save the craft], and it just didn't happen. I was pretty exhausted by that stage."

Initially he put out a call to other vessels for a pump to help with the bailing.

"But no one was close enough to give me one, and by the time someone got there it was too late."

Mr Wakelin and his crewmate were in the liferaft for about 15 minutes before the Challenger II sank completely.

They had to wait an hour before another vessel, the Amaltal Columbia, came to their rescue.

But they were never worried for their safety because they knew a ship was on the way.

"There was no concern at any time. We had plenty of time to organise everything."

Flares helped the approaching ship to find them. And once on the Columbia, a helicopter that had been called out winched the pair off the ship and took them to Hokitika.

Mr Wakelin is still unsure what caused the boat to start taking on water.

"I haven't had time to figure it out. I think it just sprung a plank somewhere, or something, but I'm not sure yet."

The boat was insured, but Mr Wakelin said he still faced losses.

He expected to buy another boat, but was considering going back to sea on someone else's fishing boat to keep money coming in.