Stolen yacht recovered after distress call

Blenheim police called to a yachtsman in distress today were able to locate the skipper unharmed -- and retrieve a stolen yacht.

Sergeant Mike Porter said the challenge now was to find the owner of the yacht, taken from Lyttelton last Tuesday. The owner has not yet reported it missing.

Mr Porter said police received a call about 10.45am from the occupants of a plane who had seen a man waving to them from a yacht grounded on the coast at Ward, near the Ure River.

Police encountered the skipper making his way to the road. He had been the sole occupant of the yacht, which he had moored offshore overnight.

The vessel, a 28-30ft single-masted sloop named Alida, had come adrift of its anchor this morning when the weather changed. Alida had suffered minimal damage in the incident.

"Fortunately it came aground on a pea gravel stone beach," Mr Porter said.

"He was very fortunate it ran aground where it did as either side are rocky outcrops, and the outcome could have been most different."

A 36-year-old Bluff man will appear in Blenheim District Court tomorrow charged with unlawfully taking a yacht.

- NZPA