Jabe Carey is seeking compensation from police after rescuers left his two-masted, 15.85m steel-hulled pilot house ketch, worth $250,000 to drift unoccupied off Northland.
Jabe Carey is seeking compensation from police after rescuers left his two-masted, 15.85m steel-hulled pilot house ketch, worth $250,000 to drift unoccupied off Northland.
A $250,000 ketch called The Never Ending is missing off the coast of Northland – adrift, wrecked, sunk, or stolen – and its owner blames the loss on a “stupid” police decision.
Former tuna boat skipper turned cryptocurrency trader Jabe Carey, 48, has complained to New Zealand’s Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) that either Coastguard or police should have secured his 15.85m steel-hulled pilot house ketch before removing him from it on December 2.
Carey also claimed he and his shipmate’s lives were put at risk when they were transported in an already-crowded Coastguard vessel at night, with their hands cuffed behind their backs, without lifejackets, across the dangerous Hokianga bar.
Coastguard says the police were responsible for any decisions made that night.
Police say the situation they arrived at was different to the one described to them in a call for help by Carey and The Never Ending was in a “state of disrepair with a number of concerning safety issues, which made reboarding and piloting it difficult for Coastguard”.
“A decision was made to leave it and to return to shore for everyone’s safety,” a police spokesman said.
Carey said that decision was “bizarre” and “incompetent” as he had tried to point out at the time.
A $250,000 ketch called The Never Ending is missing off the coast of Northland.
He believed police had created a major shipping and environmental hazard and deprived him of his home, which contained about $85,000 of his personal belongings and currency, including irreplaceable items like photographs and certificates.
“Honestly feels like I’ve been robbed of my life at the moment and I’m an emotional train wreck,” he said.
“Not the Christmas present I expected, losing everything I own after nearly losing my life and calling for help.”
Carey said he hadn’t insured the ketch because he was well qualified to sail it. He has numerous maritime qualifications including a Master 5 Certificate, now called Master up to 24 metres, which means he can captain a vessel up to 24m anywhere in the Exclusive Economic Zone.
“I believe I was the most qualified person there that night.”
Jabe Carey tried unsuccessfully to spot his missing ketch from the air.
Carey and his only shipmate – a man in his 20s – left Spirit Bay at 5am that morning to sail down the west coast of the North Island to New Plymouth then ultimately on to Waikawa at the top of the South Island, where Carey had booked dry-dock time to spend Christmas working on and repainting the boat. They had about $3000 of boat paint on board for the job.
At 1.30pm they were 18km offshore from 90 Mile Beach when Carey’s shipmate suddenly stabbed him in the head.
“I’ve never been more terrified in my life”, Carey said.
He barricaded himself into a living space below deck until help arrived about six hours later, at 7.30pm.
Four police officers, three Coastguard staff and two Hato Hone St John paramedics arrived together on a Coastguard vessel.
Police said the delay was due to the need to co-ordinate and to mitigate the risks of the situation that had been described to them.
Carey said the paramedics assessed his head wound as “minor”, so all he wanted police to do was to remove his shipmate. Instead, they were both arrested, taken off the ketch and not allowed back on it.
Both were barefoot and neither was allowed to get any belongings from the ketch, including their phones or wallets, which remain on board. Carey said he was wearing only an old jacket with nothing underneath but his “undies”.
He was concerned the ketch’s main sail was down, but not tied down, and its mizzen sail was loose about three-quarters of the way up the mast. The rescuers wouldn’t let him back on board to secure the ketch or even to set off his Epirb (emergency locator beacon) so that he could relocate the vessel later.
It was “shameful” and he’d told his rescuers they were making a “stupid” decision, Carey said.
He claimed there weren’t enough lifejackets on the crowded Coastguard boat, so he and his shipmate weren’t given any.
“We have enough water deaths and missing boats in this country already and it seems the NZ police and coastguard are no help.”
They were offloaded at Ōpononi and taken by road to Whangārei police station.
Kept in cells overnight, they were released the next day.
Carey said he had felt concussed from his head wound, but police wouldn’t get him medical attention. Instead, they gave him some shorts to wear so he could go to Whangārei Hospital. There, he had a CT scan and stayed overnight for observation.
His shipmate, who Carey believed had been suffering from a mental health condition, was also released – without charge or any mental health evaluation, Carey said.
Therefore, he believed a potentially unstable man was wandering around Whangārei – a place that man didn’t know – with no support and no phone.
Jabe Carey says "stupid" decisions made by police and Coastguard the day he sought their help put lives at risk, cost a huge amount of money and rendered him homeless.
Fortunately, Carey had informed the man’s family and they found him after urgently travelling from the South Island to do so.
Northland harbourmaster Jim Lyle said police informed him about the ketch the following day (December 3). He immediately broadcast the hazard and facilitated efforts to find the boat, liaising with several vessels in the area, but the ketch was nowhere to be seen.
“I also requested a drift model if possible through Maritime NZ, but because of the vessel having partial sails up this wasn’t considered feasible,” Lyle said.
Carey said he paid $8000 to conduct his own aerial search on December 3 and 4, but couldn’t find his boat either.
He believes police are responsible for the loss of his boat that had left him “more than homeless”. Carey, who has since been reliant on relatives to put him up, wants police to either recover and return his ketch or recompense him for his losses. He estimated rebuilding the vessel would cost between $450,000 and $1 million.
Northland district police commander Superintendent Matt Srhoj said officers who attended the scene decided it was unsafe to leave Carey alone on the vessel.
The 15.85m ketch The Never Ending was 18km off 90 Mile Beach when police and Coastguard left it unoccupied and unsecured. Photo / NZME
Carey was more “agitated” than his alleged attacker and both had outstanding warrants for their arrest, Srhoj said.
Carey claims the warrant for his arrest related to only a relatively insubstantial matter dating back four years. He pointed to the fact police didn’t try to hold him any further than that first night in the cells.
He had probably seemed more agitated than his alleged attacker because he suffers from ADHD, Carey said. And he believed his shipmate had gone quiet only because by the time the rescuers arrived, he’d realised the gravity of what he’d done. Carey said he verbally abused the man, but not his rescuers who he appreciated were there to help him.
The claim his ketch was unseaworthy upset him, Carey said.
He’d sailed it around New Zealand more than once and had lived aboard it for the past two and a half years. He wouldn’t have contemplated sailing it down south if it were unseaworthy, Carey said
Coastguard regional manager for the North Jonny Bannister confirmed Coastguard Hokianga volunteers attended the incident, but would not comment other than to say the response to the incident was a “police-led operation” and therefore police were responsible for any decisions.
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years’ experience in journalism, much of which she spent court reporting. She is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.
