Sailor rescued off Banks Peninsula
A Christchurch sailor is lucky to be alive following a nine-hour rescue mission just off the coast of Banks Peninsula.
The Sumner Lifeboat was called to a report of a sinking yacht about six kilometres south of Lake Ellesmere, off Banks Peninsula, just after 1am yesterday morning.
Lifeboat coxswain Blair Quane said four crews from Christchurch were sent out on the rescue.
He said when they arrived at 4am they found the yacht half full of water and a man hanging onto its side with a liferaft ready beside him.
Strong winds and high swells made the rescue operation a difficult task.
‘‘It was really rough and we had three metre swells around there, so that’s quite a sizeable surf to navigate your way through in the middle of the night because you can’t see anything,’’ Quane said.
The man, who was from Christchurch, was brought back to Sumner just before 9am to be medically assessed, Quane said.
It is believed the man, who is from Christchurch, had been sailing up from the bottom of the South Island to Lyttelton before being caught off guard by strong winds and high swells. The yacht was left at sea.
Quane said the yacht had taken such a beating from the weather that the man had attempted to patch a section of the boat, but it continued to fill with water.
He commended the man on having a GPS locator and other safety equipment, which he said made the rescue a lot easier.
‘‘With his GPS he could give us his location and once we got to the area we could locate him reasonably easy without doing a prolonged search for him,’’ he said.
Those going boating off the coast should have safety equipment such as emergency beacons, marine VHF radios and charged cell phones, Quane said.
‘‘It’s really important that you have the correct gear, are pretty confident and also have a confident craft that can handle a lot of conditions.’’