Helicopter to fly to injured yachtie

A Wellington rescue helicopter was due to head to the Chatham Islands at noon today to prepare to rescue an injured British yachtsman tomorrow.

John Masters, a teacher from Essex in England, has abdominal injuries and is understood to have slipped on the deck of Imagine It Done racing in the Global Challenge and landed awkwardly on equipment in the South Pacific.

The yacht is on the 11,000km Buenos Aires to Wellington leg of the round the world race.

Westpac helicopter crew chief Dave Greenberg told NZPA this morning the helicopter would refuel at the Chathams before heading a couple of hundred nautical miles out to the yacht at first light tomorrow.

The Life Flight NZ rescue plane would also fly to the Chathams to take over from the helicopter and take Masters to Wellington.

The plane was significantly faster and there would be little room for the patient on a heavily fuelled helicopter.

Mr Greenberg said Masters appeared to be in a comfortable condition at the moment but medicine was running low and his crew were anxious to get him to Wellington for treatment.

He said the flight to the Chathams was expected to take about four hours and the rescue itself about three hours.

A paramedic and Masters' wife would also head to the Chathams on a third spotter plane.

The rescue would include the pilot, Mr Greenberg as the single crew member, and the paramedic.

A doctor and nurse would tend to Masters once back on the Chathams and the plane was expected to have him back in Wellington by about mid-day tomorrow.

"It's a huge operation. The Rescue Co-ordination Centre has made a big effort in co-ordinating this and there has also been a huge co-ordination effort from us," Mr Greenberg said.

- NZPA