Tolaga Bay fishermen rescued

Two Gisborne fishermen were rescued last night after their boat's engine failed to restart after a day's fishing.

The men sent a distress signal about 5.30pm which was received by maritime radio in Tolaga Bay, 50km north of Gisborne, police said.

The signal was faint and efforts to contact the men to confirm their location were met with no response.

After it became apparent the men's boat could receive communications but not transmit, they were asked a series of questions to which they responded yes or no with radio clicks.

This helped establish that the boat was likely to be in the Gisborne area and a search was mounted.

The five-metre aluminium runabout was found at 9.15pm after an hour-long search, about 4km off Wainui Beach, just north of Gisborne.

Coastguard crew were able to restart the men's boat, which had a flat battery, and escort it back to Gisborne.

Police said the men were lucky the Wellington Rescue Coordination Centre and the Tolaga Bay maritime radio operator were persistent in trying to identify the call and a starting point for the search.

They would have otherwise faced a night at sea with searchers having to cover thousands of square kilometres.

- NZPA