Photo: RNZ / Claire Eastham-Farrelly
The yacht,
Tribe, made a distress call on Wednesday evening, off the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula, sparking a major search and rescue operation in the area the mayday call was made.
Maritime New Zealand said in eight metre swells, with night falling, the skipper radioed that his yacht was taking on water and was sinking. He gave coordinates as well as he could, Maritime NZ said in a statement. He had a hand-held VHF radio attached to his clothing but after the broken communications with Maritime Radio, he could no longer use his radio or listen to it.
The area being searched after two people on a yacht sent out a mayday call.
A distress call that led to a wild goose chase in search of a missing yacht later found safe 150km away, is a reminder to all boaties to have two forms of communication on them while out at sea. The mishap occurred when Rescue Co-ordination Centre NZ received a mayday call from a yacht believed to be sinking on the Coromandel coast on February 17. With radio silence from the skipper and night falling, two rescue helicopters, a Coastguard vessel and HMNZS Te Kaha were deployed to find the missing yacht, called Tribe.
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