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An emotional skipper has dropped plans to salvage his abandoned yacht and says he now wants his mutinous crew to pay him its $24,000 value.
Nelson accountant Bill Heritage said he was forced to abandon his 7.9m sloop Air Apparent about 90 nautical miles west of the Kaipara Harbour on Wednesday when his inexperienced crew ignored his orders and set off the yacht's emergency locator beacon.
However, one of Mr Heritage's crew said the boat was inadequately prepared for the journey they would not pay for its loss unless ordered to by a court.
All four were air-lifted off the yacht by the Northland Emergency Services Trust helicopter and flown back to Auckland. Mr Heritage could not stay on board alone because it was too dangerous.
The Compass 790 yacht was left floating and a navigation warning was issued to shipping by Maritime New Zealand.
Mr Heritage said today his insurance would not cover his loss and it was too costly for him to salvage the yacht he had owned for 15 years.
"It is not economic," he said.
He said he was not keen on talking publicly.
"I have lost my yacht which is very emotional and I would rather deal with it privately than in the public domain."
Mr Heritage would not comment on the decision by his crew Carl Horn, John Lammin and Sharan Foga, to set off the yacht's emergency beacon when he had ordered them not to.
"The whole circumstances surrounding the setting off the beacon and rescue are something that has been a lot harder to cope with than I would have thought," Mr Heritage said.
"It was a good design, small cruising yacht and I enjoyed it immensely."
He said the insurance would not cover its salvage.
"I am facing an uninsured loss."
Mr Heritage would not talk further but Mr Horn said he when he returned to Nelson after the rescue Mr Heritage had told him he wanted the crew to pay for the yacht.
That would not happen, said Mr Horn, who had been friend of Mr Heritage for 27 years. He said the argument would probably end up in court.
Mr Horn said he was happy with the decision to set off the beacon and be rescued and said they probably would not have survived the night.
He said the yacht was not well prepared for a trip from Auckland to Nelson, along the west coast.
The motor would not start because the battery had not been charged and the crank failed to work.
He said as the seas continued to rise, the navigation lights failed, there was no light on the compass to steer by and they were out of radio contact with anyone because of the loss of power.
When they opened the sea anchor to keep the bow into the waves, by then about five metres high, there was no shackle and no rope.
They triggered the emergency beacon but it lasted less than three hours and died as a rescue helicopter arrived.
Mr Horn said things had been going wrong for most of the day before they hit the storm.
He said the boat was adequately prepared for a harbour cruise but "seriously inadequately prepared for an off shore, deep water passage from Cape Reinga to Nelson.
"The three of us put our trust in him. He was the sailor. We were crew, we were workers, we trusted implicitly in his skill."
Mr Horn said the decision to go down the often unpredictable west coast and not the less rough east coast was made by Mr Heritage.
He denied the inexperienced crew panicked when the seas got rough and the wind reached 25 knots.
He said the crew had not slept for two days by Tuesday morning and he was becoming extremely uncomfortable with their situation as the northeasterly gale increased.
"I concluded that Bill had not prepared as well as he might have and that he was an optimist."
He conceded Mr Heritage might have known the capabilities of his yacht better than the crew.
Mr Horn said he now believed the issue would be decided in the courts.
He said neither he nor the other two crew members would pay Mr Heritage the $24,000 he wanted.
"It is not going to happen without a court case."
He said if the insurance company would not pay Mr Heritage then he had an issue with the insurance company and not with the crew.
He said he and Mr Heritage had been friends for 27 years but that friendship was now probably doomed and that was extraordinarily sad.
"I thought he was being too optimistic, too concerned about his boat."
Mr Horn said he was taking legal advice about their position.
It was not known if the yacht was still afloat.
- NZPA
