Sinking boat left no time for mayday call - police

Searchers, including the Navy, police and Coast Guard, searched for a missing man after the boat he was in sank off Kawau Island in the Hauraki Gulf. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A fishing trip which ended in tragedy last week left four men and a teenager floundering for their lives in the Hauraki Gulf after their boat filled with water and sank within seconds, say police.

The five had no time to call for help on the VHF radio fitted in the six-metre, aluminium boat and had to struggle to get their lifejackets on in the water.

One of the men, Anthony Murray Preston, 41, of Warkworth, north of Auckland, could not get his lifejacket done up properly and police said he was thought to have slipped out and drowned. Mr Preston was thought to have been drinking.

The tragedy prompted a warning from police that a two-way radio fitted in a boat may not always be enough and that boaties should consider other waterproof communications equipment.

After a week of searching police called in the navy to use an underwater scanner to search the seabed near Kawau Island for Mr Preston's body. Navy divers were on standby today to recover his body if it was found.

The sunken boat was found and recovered yesterday and marine experts were examining it today to find out what went wrong. It was believed the motor stopped near Kawau Island and the boat filled with water and sank within seconds.

Senior Sergeant Martin Paget, from the Auckland police maritime unit, said today the boat had a marine radio fitted but there was no time for it to be used.

"It sank too quickly. It took on water and sank so quickly they didn't have a chance.

"That is a common theme which we are trying to get across to boaties. It is nice to have all this fitted equipment but to be honest most fitted radios in a small boat are more suitable to talk to your mates about where the fish are."

He said radios did not work when a boat sank and they got wet.

"People need to be prepared for that eventuality and have something that will work after it had got wet."

He said boaties should consider an emergency beacon, flares in a floating box they could grab if the boat was sinking and a waterproof, hand-held VHF radio.

The boat also had flares but Mr Paget said it was not yet known why they were not used.

Mr Paget said it was a tragic lesson on the wisdom of wearing lifejackets and not just meeting marine requirements and having enough in the boat for every person on board.

Mr Preston was separated from the others who swam to an island near Kawau Island, where they spent a chilly night before being rescued the following morning and flown to hospital.

- NZPA