Police still looking for triple-fatality boat

Police have yet to pinpoint where the boat sank off the Horowhenua Coast on Saturday, killing three fishing mates.

The bodies of Graham Joseph Beckett, 51, and Bruce Tantrum, 52, both of Palmerston North, and Owen Silas Hanley, 61, of Foxton Beach, were found 8km out to sea on Sunday.

Constable Ross Brannigan, from Foxton Beach, said police would meet Marine Safety investigators tomorrow.

"We are still running regular beach patrols, but we haven't found the boat yet," he said.

Police have been unable to pinpoint where the boat was when it got into difficulty because the trio did not let onshore radio operators know their movements.

It is still not known why the boat sank, but police think it may have struck a submerged object or capsized crossing a sandbar.

The three men were wearing lifejackets when their bodies were found by searchers soon after dawn, off Hokio Beach south of Foxton.

Mr Brannigan said autopsies would show whether the men had drowned or died of hypothermia.

Meanwhile, members of the Manawatu Marine Boating Club, where Mr Hanley was a member, were struggling to come to terms with the deaths.

Club manager Alan Wakeling said about 40 boaties, many of whom knew the men, helped with the search on the weekend.

"Owen Hanley was a member here, but the other two were also well-known, and everyone is pretty devastated, especially those who were close friends," he said. "Fishermen tend to socialise together."

Conditions at the weekend had been "very good", said Mr Wakeling.

"However, the Coastguards, and here at the club, we strongly encourage boaties to radio in and let us know where they are going, especially if they are going out to sea ...

"If they are crossing the bar, which is always potentially hazardous, we ask that they radio before and after.

"These are standard procedures, but not everyone follows them."

Knowing roughly the area where a boat was headed and an estimated return time would allow searches to start earlier and be more accurate, he said.

If the boat wreckage was going to surface, it would probably be on the beaches to the south, pulled by the predominant tides.

Police want to hear from anyone who saw the 5m Haines Hunter boat, the Sea Spray, last sighted near the Manawatu River mouth on Saturday afternoon, or anyone who finds debris that might have come from the boat.

- NZPA