Yacht explodes in pieces around him
When boatie Mike Lawler flicked his lighter to see better, his yacht exploded into a ‘‘fireball’’ on the weekend in the Waitemata¯ Harbour.
On Saturday night after finishing work, Lawler headed home to his yacht, moored off Herald Island, to connect up a new battery.
Then when he flicked on his lighter to check he was connecting the positive and negative correctly, his yacht exploded in pieces around him.
Sitting just inside the cockpit, the blast threw him to the other side of the boat and blew the entire hull out, right down to the waterline.
Realising his jacket was on fire, Lawler tore it off and did a quick scan to try to find a life jacket before making a quick exit.
‘‘I start looking out to the doorway and there’s no cockpit, no doorway there. I looked around the other side – there’s no walls on the boat. Looked up – no roof. I’m like, ‘Wow,’ he said.
‘‘I’m like, ‘Damn that water’s going to be cold and just jumped in.’’’
While the force of the bang shook houses on Herald Island and even broke a house window, Lawler said he heard nothing.
‘‘It was only a fireball for a couple of seconds.’’
The roofer, 44, swam more than halfway to shore before he was met by a friend’s son, Mike Reeves, on a paddle board off the Ferry Parade side of the island.
‘‘He was just shocked I wasn’t cut up into heaps of pieces.’’
Once ashore, Lawler was pulled onto a private jetty, where he sat for around 10 minutes, before walking up the bank to his friend Don Reeves’ house and emergency services arrived.
He was transported by the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to Middlemore Hospital.
Lawler suffered burns to the face, wrists, feet and lower back.
He said his beard and moustache – which were burnt off – saved him from more severe facial burns.
Lawler said he thought the cause of the accident was a gas leak from the bottle he used to power his stove.
The former Glen Eden resident said he purchased his 37-foot boat, Okura, around two years ago, but had only been living on it since last October after a relationship breakup.
Lawler said he hadn’t got around to insuring it, as, at the time of purchase, insurers requested a $2000 safety assessment, so he decided to leave it until he could find a better deal.
He said removal of the wreckage was estimated at $10,000.
‘‘There’s no walls on the boat. Looked up–no roof.’’