Yachties' rescue will cost taxpayers over $800,000

Plucking two Lyttelton yachties out of the Pacific Ocean this week cost the taxpayer up to $870,000.

Bruce Cox and Heloise Kortekaas were back on dry land yesterday recovering in Christchurch Hospital after a four-day rescue saga that included battling 50-knot winds and 14m swells.

The couple's storm-lashed yacht, the Janette Gay, rolled and lost its mast on Sunday, nearly 800km northeast of the Chatham Islands.

That night an Air Force Orion dropped two "Sea Rescue Apparatus" kits. Each had an estimated value of $250,000, said Defence Force spokeswoman Danielle Coe.

The first kit missed its target in the huge swell and was left wallowing at sea, said Maritime New Zealand spokesman Lindsay Sturt.

It included three separate box-like containers, linked by hundreds of metres of rope, tied in a series of intricate knots.

The Orion circled and tried hitting its target a second time. The parachuted container landed close to the yacht and inflated on landing.

Mr Cox and Ms Kortekaas lashed the 10-seater liferaft to their boat, but later lost it in the big seas.

The Orion made three round-trips from its Auckland base, one each on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Ms Coe said the plane clocked up 34.4 hours of flying time.

Estimated running costs of the aircraft are between $5000 and $10,000 an hour, which meant the total bill for the Air Force operation was between $172,000 and $344,000.

No organisation or individual would be billed for the Orion's expenses, Ms Coe said. The money for the plane's running costs came from the Defence Ministry's budget.

A further three aircraft, co-ordinated by Wellington's Life Flight Trust, were used in the rescue.

The estimated $30,000 cost of those aircraft and crew would be passed on to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre, said Life Flight operations manager Dave Greenbury.

The three Life Flight aircraft included a helicopter - to lift the couple from the ship that rescued them - a spotter plane and an air ambulance.

The air ambulance carried the injured couple from the Chathams to Christchurch yesterday. The crew consisted of two pilots, a crewman, and two medics. Meanwhile, the spotter plane had two pilots and an extra "spotter", and the helicopter's crew included the pilot, a crew member and a medic.

The Rescue Co-ordination Centre is run by the Crown-owned entity Maritime New Zealand.

Mr Sturt said it was seafaring convention that ships be diverted from their normal duties to help with search-and-rescue operations. They did so at the expense of the ship-owning company, despite any time and fuel-cost constraints.

The 5000-tonne Maunakea and 45,800-tonne Encounter both took part in the rescue mission.

The Encounter picked up the couple after the Maunakea abandoned its Monday rescue attempt due to dangerous seas and 50-knot winds.

The $250,000 Sea Rescue Apparatus includes:

* 10-seater liferaft

* Carbon dioxide-filled inflation cylinders

* Rope wrapped around the containers

* Water

* First aid supplies and medicine

* A desalination kit

* Barley sugar

* Playing cards

* Personal locator beacon