Yachties drift unseen for 8 hours

Two men drifted for more than eight hours on their overturned catamaran near Waiheke Island before being rescued at midnight on Saturday. No one, including their race organisers, had been aware they were in trouble.

Sailors Nick Beckett and Graeme Robbins were competing in Saturday's Short Handed Sailing Association regatta when their 8.5m catamaran overturned for the first time about 11.15am.

They lost their cellphones and radio but righted the boat with the help of a passing fisherman and used his cell phone to call race organisers.

They said they were sailing back to Auckland but pulling out of the race.

Race officer Dougall Love said he heard from the men about 2.30pm.

An hour later the catamaran was again upside down in the Waiheke Channel with no other boats around and no way of contacting anyone.

Mr Robbins estimated they drifted about three miles over the evening tide, at times getting close to land but deciding to stay with their boat rather than swim.

"The boat would get in the current, it would take us towards an island, then spear off to one side or the other. It was survival, hunkered down with your backs to the wind cuddling up to each other from 3.30 until we got picked up around midnight," Mr Robbins wrote on the www.crew.org.nz website.

He said they were not mugs and they were not inexperienced yachties but he was sure some experts would point the finger at them.

Mr Love said the men had called after the boat tipped the first time to say they were pulling out of the race, they were fine and were heading back to Auckland.

He did not know the men had to be rescued until the Herald told him yesterday afternoon.

"The guys said to me that basically they were fine and they used someone else's cell phone to ring me. I just wish someone had called to let us know what was going on."

No one was told of the men's plight until 10.30pm when family members called police.

They were found by the police helicopter and were finally rescued by the coastguard at midnight. They were cold, wet and suffering mild hypothermia. They were taken to Middlemore hospital and later discharged.

"It could have been disastrous," Mr Love said. "We learn from these things."

He said that because the men had called to say they had pulled out of the race and were sailing back to Auckland he did not check on them again. More than 130 boats were sailing on Saturday.

"Maybe we should have checked up. We can tell these guys as much as we want that they must let us know. Perhaps we could have improved on some things."

He said race organisers and the men would be meeting to discuss what went wrong.