Yacht hits whale, Coastguard Kaikoura rescue

Friday 18th June the 10m yacht  Marguerite sailing from the Marlborough Sounds en route to Lyttelton hit what the crew believed to be a whale and sustained damage to the rudder.  The lurch of the vessel threw a woman crew member into fishing gear where she sustained an injury to the buttock area from a 15cm tuna hook and the skipper also fell spraining his wrist.  In heavy seas with their rudder jammed they were not able steer the yacht and a large wave pushed water into the cabin area disabling their electronics.  They spent an uncomfortable night and maintained contact with the Maritime NZ Rescue Coordination Centre  (RCC) via a ‘fleet link’ radio. The next morning they activated their EPRIB and the RCC handed the management of the search and rescue operation to Police.

Coastguard Kaikoura volunteer crew were tasked by Police and launched Kaikoura Rescue, facing one of their toughest rescues battling breaking swells up to five metres high and winds gusting 55 – 75km per hour.  The Marguerite was 30 kilometres off Kaikoura and it took and hour and a half to reach the stranded yachities in the high seas.  With visibillity poor the yacht set off two flares as Kaikoura Rescue reached their location to enable the Coastguard volunteer crew to finally locate the yacht.  Transferring the yachities to the Coastguard Rescue Vessel was difficult in the conditions and they were brought to shore where the injured pair were taken to Kaikoura Hospital by ambulance.

The Coastguard Kaikoura volunteers later returned to find and take the yacht under tow back to South Bay, Kaikoura.  Jack Kemp of Coastguard Kaikoura praised the Marguerites skipper and crew, who were experienced and had all the safety gear needed including the EPRIB beacon and a UFH radio.