The skipper of the doomed fishing charter vessel Francie is among those who died in yesterday's tragedy.

The six-month trial of shark nets on the notorious NSW north coast will be fast tracked after another surfer was lucky to survive an attack near Byron Bay.

A surfer has had a lucky escape after being bitten by a shark in northern NSW, leading to all beaches in the area being closed.

Darius DeWet docked at Tauranga over the weekend on his 6.7m yacht, Luna.

Large-scale searches involving helicopters had to be deployed for a 20-year-old inexperienced yachtie after he went missing twice.

A VHF radio was being ferried last night to an inexperienced yachtie found alive yesterday off the East Cape after an extensive search.

A pleasure boat with 142 passengers on board crashed into a pier on the River Thames after a fire broke out in its engine room.

A 33-year-old mother has died while rescuing her two-year-old son who had fallen into a lake in Utah from a boat they were travelling in.

The yacht on which one sailor was killed and another lost at sea has arrived back in New Zealand under tow.

There are two types of people in Auckland today. Those who say, "So what. It's just a boat". And humans, writes Andrew Dickens.

It had survived 110 years of choppy waters, but all that could be seen of the Kestrel this morning was its roof floating amid the debris.

Large ship incidents risk new Rena-style catastrophes in New Zealand coastal waters.

Clinging to their upturned boat, injured and being smashed by violent 6m waves, three Auckland boaties thought their time was up.

An avid sailor who is recovering from his injuries after the boom on his yacht struck him in the head, credits his survival to careful planning and regular contact throughout his journey.

KiwiRail says internal investigation ruled out external factors or a power surge as the cause of the 2013 incident.

A man on a fishing vessel has been winched to hospital after suffering from a medical condition out at sea.

A New Zealand woman was flown to hospital with serious head injuries after a boating accident in an Australian tourist hotspot.

Two people on board suffered cuts and bruises after boat slams into Waiheke Island coastline.

Rescuers yesterday revealed the lucky break that meant the toll from the Lake Tekapo kayaking tragedy was not worse.

The two young tourists who died after falling into Lake Tekapo yesterday have been named.

Passengers on the boat that capsized near Greece, and claimed the life of a toddler, say the toddler's father was working with smugglers and driving the boat.

A boss acting for the MV Rena's Greek owners has again said sorry for the ship's calamitous grounding four years ago.

Jeremy Charles Brons of Christchurch was swept away by a swollen Snowy River after a failed West Coast river crossing.

The wreck could pave the way to a bright and prosperous future, but a golden opportunity could easily be squandered if the wrong decisions are made, writes Roger Grace.

Ask your average Tauranga local about the Rena and you'll find they haven't thought about that not-too-distant hunk of steel in a long time.

Two of New Zealand's most renowned marine scientists have argued for more "no-take" marine reserves, where fishing of any kind is banned.

Mervin de Rozario will be farewelled tomorrow after his body was found in the water near Waiheke Island at the weekend.

A wooden fishing boat packed with at least 600 migrants overturned in the Mediterranean Sea and hundreds are feared dead.

A surfer's desperate attempt to fight off a shark that was mauling him has been described as a "Mick Fanning replay" by a friend who witnessed the attack.

A man who drowned after being thrown from a boat on the Waitara River mouth in Taranaki yesterday has been named by police.