Reckless boaties amaze Coastguard

Coastguard officers on one of the country's most dangerous bars were amazed and upset that three boaties ignored heavy wind warnings to go fishing yesterday.

A six-metre runabout had to be rescued by two coastguard boats after first losing power and then an anchor and began drifting onto rocks in 35 knot winds outside the Manukau Harbour heads yesterday.

Manukau Coastguard controller Michael Atkins said the boat was rescued and towed to safety but two coastguard boats had to be deployed and the incident could have ended in tragedy.

"We still have a lot of people who don't pay too much attention to weather forecasts and wind warnings," Mr Atkins said.

"It does piss you off a bit when your Sunday is messed up because of someone's stupidity."

He said the wind warning was still in force but the sea conditions were not bad although it could have easily deteriorated.

"They lost their anchor and they lost power so the potential for disaster was there."

He said seldom did coastguard rescuers get a donation although the men were from a Weymouth club which gave the coastguard a donation earlier this year.

"I suspect the donation was very quickly gobbled up in fuel yesterday," Mr Atkins said.

Two other vessels got into trouble in high winds on the Waitemata Harbour yesterday.

A small inflatable got into trouble as it tried to tow a yacht in heavy seas off the Tamaki Strait and a seven-metre catamaran lost its mast. It had no anchor and began drifting towards rocks.

Both calls ended without further difficulty.

- NZPA