Rescued: Wellington businessmen on stricken yacht
Wellington coffee royalty were aboard a stricken yacht that sparked an air search then high-seas rescue in the remote reaches of the Pacific Ocean yesterday.
Geoff Marsland – who co-founded Midnight Espresso in Cuba St, Havana Coffee Works, and Deluxe Cafe on Kent Tce – was on the 61 foot Jungle which crashed into the remote Tuvana-I-Ra reef, 425km southeast of the Fijian capital of Suva, heading towards Tonga.
Also aboard was the unofficial mayor of Cuba St, Roger Young, who co-owns Fidel’s Cafe, as well as Havana bar, around the corner.
Young’s business partner Potti Wagstaff confirmed the pair were aboard the stricken yacht along with the boat’s owner Peter McLean, well known in the Picton and Wellington yachting communities, as well as McLean’s son.
The yacht sent out an emergency signal early yesterday morning after hitting the reef, and a New Zealand air force Orion was sent to search for it.
The Maritime NZ Rescue Co-ordination Centre confirmed yesterday afternoon that the yacht had been found stuck to the reef.
The crew were fine but the yacht was badly damaged, a spokesman said.
A life raft was used to get the crew to the reef, where there was a small settlement. From there, the Fiji navy would gather them but it was a day’s sailing from major Fiji islands.
Messages from the yacht’s crew to relatives at about 2am said the vessel’s backstay was broken, affecting the yacht’s ability to sail, the air force said.
Roger Foley, who knew McLean and Marsland, said the yacht had been heading towards Tonga when it got into trouble.
The Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) that was set off usually meant a boat or life were in danger, he said.
Marsland and McLean had been boating together for decades, dating back to when Marsland as a teenager worked on fishing boats McLean ran.
Waikawa Bay boat club manager Sue van Vellzen said the men were very experienced sailors who had steered the yacht from the overseas port it was brought from. Van Vellzen said the vessel was seaworthy but the area was notorious for its uncharted reefs.
‘‘You’re miles from land, totally in the open ocean and very exposed – it can be challenging.’’
She suspected they may have had a gear failure that was likely compounded by other failures, which was usually the case when something major went wrong.
Yachting New Zealand safety inspector Mark Gibbs said hitting a reef in that area was uncommon and unfortunate as it was ‘‘miles from help’’.
Navigation charts for the area ‘‘leave a bit to be desired’’, he said.
While this incident was arguably Marsland’s most dramatic maritime mishap it is not the only one. In 2013, he sailed home to Eastbourne in Wellington with plans for a romantic day with his wife, and inadvertently beached his boat.
‘‘It’s a love story, really,’’ he said afterwards. ‘‘I went home to have breakfast with the wife ... and breakfast turned into lunch.’’
By the time he returned to his 47-foot yacht, Nameless, it was high and dry where he had anchored it in Mahina Bay.