A BIRTHDAY fishing trip off the Wanganui coast left a Bunnythorpe teenager dead and two men in a critical condition yesterday after their boat sank at sea, forcing them to spend a night in the water.
Geoffrey Mark Hampton, 19, was found dead at sea in the arms of his father Alan Hampton, 44, with boat-owner Duncan Powell, 32, after rescuers spotted their lifejackets 10.19km south of the Whanganui River mouth at 7.40am yesterday morning.
Geoffrey Hampton had turned 19 only the day before, the day the boat went down.
His father, who lives in Rongotea, and Mr Powell, of Ashhurst were taken to Wanganui Hospital in a critical condition yesterday, suffering from hypothermia.
Wanganui police senior sergeant Darcy Forrester said police did not know exactly what happened to the 4.88m runabout, except that it had been swamped very quickly after taking water on the stern, leaving them no time to call for help.
"I think they did everything right. They did a trip report, they had a radio on board, they had lifejackets," he said.
It was not yet clear whether the accident occurred on the fishing trip or on the way home, but police believed they had spent the night in the water, he said.
Wanganui Police were first alerted to the missing boat at 8.50pm on Saturday, after Wanganui Coastguard reported it had missed its scheduled return time of 8pm.
The Energy Direct Rescue boat had searched the area where the men had signalled they would fish until about 3.30am yesterday, but could not find them, he said.
Wanganui police search and rescue controller Barry Billows said the last known report indicated the group would be fishing 3km off the river mouth and rescuers had even searched as far out as 22.22km, using local knowledge to try to work out where the boat might be.
At 7am, an Air Wanganui twin-engine fixed-wing aircraft had set out to search the coastline south the river mouth as far as Foxton, and spotted the missing men on the way back, The men were located on the water by local boat Cassie and Co and were transferred to the Energy Direct Rescue boat shortly afterwards.
Mr Billows said Mr Hampton was still coherent and Mr Powell was slipping in and out of consciousness when they were pulled out of the water.
The three men were thought to have driven to Wanganui on Saturday morning and sailed out from the wharf at 1pm.
He believed the boat was now on the bottom of the sea. The families were very upset and still coming to terms with what had happened, he said.
A Wanganui Hospital spokeswoman said the two men had been treated for hypothermia, but were conscious and able to talk with family by 3pm yesterday.
They were reported as being in a satisfactory condition.
Boating tragedy: teen dies in dad's arms
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