Rules tightened after fatal collision

In heavy rain, with its own lights blending in with the glare of Picton township behind it, the Bluebridge passenger ferry had only the frantic blast of its horn to alert a small boat to its sudden presence.

But the warning was not enough to stop the 10m Timeless hitting the 136m ferry at 7.30pm on Monday, splintering into dozens of pieces and tossing its two occupants into the water.

A 66-year-old Picton man, Norman Macfarlane, died in the collision. His woman companion was uninjured.

The crash is the latest and most serious in a series of incidents involving ferries.

Growing unease about safety standards across Cook Strait and in Wellington Harbour and Queen Charlotte Sound yesterday prompted the Maritime Safety Authority to introduce stricter safety measures.

From 9am today ferries must have a "lookout" on bridges in certain sailing conditions. Spot safety checks will be increased.

Authority director Russell Kilvington said there had been eight serious incidents since October, including a near-miss between the Arahura and Bluebridge's Santa Regina. Both can carry hundreds of passengers between them.

He could not say how close those ferries came to colliding, but said there was "confusion" on the bridge of one of the ships.

Mr Kilvington would not say how many people were on the bridge of the Santa Regina on Monday evening.

Under present rules, the minimum number of people would be two. From today, ferries sailing at night will need four people on the bridge.

The Bluebridge ferry, which is operated by Strait Shipping, came to a halt in Queen Charlotte Sound after the Monday night collision, only 1km out of Picton.

Crew turned spotlights on the water and launched a rescue dinghy when they heard two people in the water. Within 10 minutes they had found a woman and pulled her on board.

Other boats arrived quickly and began searching for Timeless' missing skipper.

Commercial diver Dave Baker said the Timeless debris was "everywhere, and lots of it". Two other boats had arrived before him to search and were "carefully picking their way through it all".

"The cabin was missing but the rest of the boat still floating around. Three quarters of the hull was there, then the stern, but basically it was completely smashed. But the impact of a huge ship like that, well, you can imagine."

The Bluebridge crew transferred the rescued woman on to a CougarLine water taxi. She was taken to Wairau Hospital in Blenheim with severe shock but was released yesterday afternoon.

Mr Baker kept searching the water and within a few minutes the Bluebridge crew radioed to say they could see someone on their starboard side.

"West Bay [a Water Transport taxi] was quicker than us. They were clear of the wreckage and we were still among it, so they got there quickly but unfortunately that person had died."

The Picton barge Rongowai later pulled the wreckage out of the water.

"That was actually the worst bit. It tipped parts of Timeless upside down and all the belongings of those people just scattered out all over the barge. It was a really sad thing to watch."

The authority will not speculate on what caused the collision, but said in any incident it was seldom "100 per cent" the fault of one craft. Marlborough harbour rules require smaller craft to give way to ferries.