Parents threw children in water before launch hit

Two quick thinking parents may have saved their children's lives when they threw them into the water moments before their boat was struck by a launch.

All six family members sustained minor injuries when a power boat collided with their trimaran near a peninsula known as The Snout in the Marlborough Sounds yesterday.

Boat owner Siegfried Moseneder, who was at the helm at the time, said the bow of the 15m launch rode over the top of his smaller boat and smashed the cabin.

Witness Gary Tomes, who was returning from a bach by boat, saw two children being thrown in the water.

"They chucked the two kids overboard because they knew they were going to hit, then they took the brunt of the whole thing," he told the Dominion Post.

"(That) was probably pretty good because if the kids were on there, they would have got hurt pretty bad."

Mr Tomes pulled up alongside the wreckage and pulled Mr Moseneder and his wife aboard.

"There was stuff everywhere. We had to be a wee bit careful going in there because there were pillows, jackets and all sorts in the water and you didn't know if it was somebody or whether it was just wreckage," he said.

All six people, including Mr Moseneder's daughter and son-in-law, were taken to Wairau Hospital suffering cuts, grazes, bruises and shock.

Mr Tomes said the family had a lucky escape.

"It was amazing because when we saw it happen we thought, `My God, somebody has got to have died in that'."

None of the power boat's occupants were injured.

Picton Harbourmaster Alex van Wijngaarden told NZPA that the yacht was towed, partly submerged to Picton.

"It was substantially damaged and the other vessel was damaged as well," he said.

He said Maritime New Zealand and the Transport Accident Investigation Commission had been advised of the incident.

- NZPA