Pre-dawn collision raises safety fears on harbour

Another fatality on Auckland's harbour is inevitable if boaties continue to flout navigation rules, harbourmaster John Lee-Richards said after an early morning collision yesterday between a 12m pilot vessel and a 3m fishing dinghy.

It was only through luck no one was injured, he said. "It's worrying us more and more that boats are proceeding without lights. Someone is going to get killed one day."

The number of yachts and high-powered motor boats on the Waitemata meant congestion was rising yearly.

The high-speed orange pilot vessel, used to ferry the pilots who navigate for ships entering the harbour, was taking a pilot out to a waiting ship about 3am when the incident happened just to the east of the main shipping channel.

Mr Lee-Richards said the pilot vessel skipper thought he saw a light to starboard and switched off his engine but "clouted" the dinghy where a fisherman was laying out a longline.

The fisherman had rung the harbourmaster's office to complain - "he was pretty irate" - but it appeared he had failed to have a fixed white light on his boat and did not keep a proper lookout.

It was unlikely a prosecution would result from the incident but more effort would have to be put in to educating the boating public, Mr Lee-Richards said.

In January last year a Fullers ferry captain was prosecuted after his vessel collided with a charter fishing boat. A Gisborne woman was injured and died in hospital three weeks later.