No sign of man who fell from capsized boat

A man who fell from a boat that capsized in Manukau Harbour on Thursday evening remains missing today.

The 74-year-old man was one of two men in an 18-foot boat that overturned while crossing the Manukau Bar via the south channel about 5pm on Thursday.

People on a nearby boat managed to pull one man from the water unhurt, but the elderly man did not surface.

Both men were believed to have been wearing life jackets at the time.

Yesterday evening, Sergeant Constable Craig Hughes of the Auckland Maritime Police Unit said despite a ground search of the area, and sweep searches carried out by the police Eagle Helicopter, the elderly man had not been found.

Mr Hughes said police were "not actively searching at this stage".

Today a spokesman from the Auckland Maritime Police Unit said the search for the missing man had been scaled back.

He said the police Eagle Helicopter had done a search in the morning, and one again in the afternoon. The helicopter would carry out these searches every day, conditions permitting.

No sea or land searches would continue because of the rough conditions of the area the man has gone missing from, he said.

The 74-year-old man was among a group of family and friends out fishing together. The people in the boat that rescued the other man were friends of the missing man and his family.