Easy Rider overloaded and skipper unqualified
A DAMNING investigation has found fishing boat Easy Rider was overloaded, and its skipper not sufficiently qualified, when it sank in Foveaux Strait, killing eight members of an extended family.
Gale-force winds had been forecast when the 11-metre boat set out from Bluff in March last year, and a crew member’s body was found to have a high level of THC, the active ingredient of cannabis, in his blood, a Traffic Accident Investigation Commission report said.
‘‘Easy Rider was loaded with too much weight, too high in the vessel, resulting in it having insufficient reserve stability for the intended voyage,’’ the commission found. The skipper did not have the required maritime qualification to be in charge of the Easy Rider when it was operating as a commercial fishing vessel, and he did not have a sound knowledge of his vessel’s stability,’’ it said.
‘‘The weather forecast was for gale-force winds, and these conditions were not suitable for the vessel to venture across Foveaux Strait at night with marginal stability and passengers on board.’’
When the boat left the quay at Bluff, sea water was seen sloshing on to the after-deck.
Six passengers were to be offloaded at Big South Cape Island, off the southwestern tip of Stewart Island, to prepare for the muttonbird season.
Skipper Rewai Karetai, along with two crew members, had intended to travel to fishing grounds to fish commercially.
Three minutes after midnight on March 15, the boat was near the Bishop and Clark Islands, off the north end of Stewart Island and at the western end of Foveaux Strait in an area known for strong, variable currents and turbulent water.
Easy Rider was engulfed by a large wave and capsized, staying afloat for two hours before sinking. The wave added weight to a deck already heavily loaded with cargo and, at the same time, rolled the boat past the point it could recover from, the report said.
Crew member Dallas Reedy, who was sitting out on deck at the time, was the sole survivor. He was found alive 18 hours after the boat sank, clinging to a plastic petrol can which he called Wilson, after the volleyball in the Tom Hanks’ movie Castaway.
The bodies recovered were of Shane Topi, 29, Boe Taikawa Pikia-Gillies, 28, John Henry Karetai, 58, and Peter PekamuBloxham, 53. The bodies of Rewai Karetai, 47, Paul Fowler-Karetai, 40, David Fowler, 50, and Odin Karetai, 7, remain missing and they have been declared drowned.
Chief commissioner John Marshall, QC, said Mr Karetai did not have the required maritime qualification to be in charge of the Easy Rider when it was operating as a commercial fishing vessel. The fishing deckhand certificate which he did have did not cover the fundamentals of stability.
‘‘From the way the vessel was loaded it appears that the skipper did not understand the concept of vessel stability.’’
Easy Rider was operating as a commercial fishing vessel and should not have been carrying the six passengers. It also had insufficient life-saving equipment.
There was no evidence alcohol or drugs were a cause of the accident, but the body of one crew member had a high level of THC in the blood, a passenger also had THC, and one passenger had a high level of alcohol in his blood.
In October, Maritime New Zealand laid five charges against the boat’s owner, AZ1 Enterprises, and five against AZ1 Enterprises’ sole director, the skipper’s widow Gloria Davis. She has pleaded not guilty.