{"id":105583,"date":"2025-10-28T17:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105583\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T17:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:49:08","slug":"skipper-sean-wilson-fined-for-boat-collision-near-mount-maunganui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/105583\/","title":{"rendered":"Skipper Sean Wilson fined for boat collision near Mount Maunganui"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man then reversed, attempting to avoid a collision, but the oncoming boat<\/a> struck the bow of the family\u2019s boat, the Ruger.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy slamming our boat hard into reverse and turning to face the danger, I\u2019d instinctively and without hesitation put myself directly between the oncoming boat and my family,\u201d the man said in his victim impact statement, which was read in court <\/a>recently.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Ruger was damaged in a boat collision near Mount Maunganui in February 2024.<\/p>\n

\u2018Impact was brutal, hard and loud\u2019<\/p>\n

On board the other boat, the Dueller, were skipper Sean Wilson and his friend Stephan Mason, who were returning after an afternoon of snorkelling and fishing. <\/p>\n

Wilson was fatigued, and thinks he might have fallen asleep. <\/p>\n

Mason was looking to the left, at people walking around the Mount, and didn\u2019t see the Ruger.<\/p>\n

When the collision happened, the father hit the windscreen, the children were screaming, and he looked up to see his wife bleeding from the mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact was brutal, hard, and loud,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife was thrown forward and sustained a full face impact to the left side of her face and heavy impact to her back and abdomen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His then 5-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son both suffered bruising to their faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving two small children in a state of terror, screaming in pain and seeing their mother with blood coming from her mouth is a situation I do not wish any father or husband to have to face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other boat left, and the man made a mayday call, before slowly heading back to Pilot Bay<\/a>, relieved to see the boat wasn\u2019t taking on water.<\/p>\n

The man said all of his family had trouble sleeping after the incident and battled with emotional distress. <\/p>\n

The children were now frightened of going on boats, and his daughter lacked confidence going to school, which she\u2019d only just started, after the collision.<\/p>\n

The man\u2019s wife said her concussion had proved \u201cextremely difficult\u201d to cope with.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to my head pain, I had to try and rest my eyes as much as possible. However, every time I did this, I relived the accident,\u201d she said in her victim impact statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moment of impact and how quickly the accident happened, the moment kept replaying in our heads over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019d suffered nightmares and had difficulty sleeping, tormented by thinking over the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that I was unable to reach [the children before impact] … I kept replaying in my mind if [my husband] had not reversed the boat in the way he did, we would have experienced a very different reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boat was \u2018our happy place\u2019<\/p>\n

The family had only recently been reunited in New Zealand, after having been separated in different countries during Covid.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d moved to Tauranga, purchased the boat, and used it over the summer months to create happy memories as a family.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe family had purchased the boat to create happy memories, and enjoy their “love of the sea”.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving the boat was an outlet that the whole family could experience together, it was our happy place,\u201d the mother said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that Sunday, the boat was taken away, and it felt as if we were left shattered in pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said they lived \u201cwith the fallout of the accident every day\u201d, but she hoped they would rebuild, and she would \u201csupport [her] children to grow their love for the sea once more\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wilson was charged with operating a ship in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk to a person or property. <\/p>\n

He had been cruising at an estimated speed of 18 to 20 knots; boats are meant to slow to 5 knots when within 50m of another vessel.<\/p>\n

The impact caused injuries to all those on board both vessels.<\/p>\n

The father suffered bruising to his chest, a back sprain, and his head hit the windscreen. His wife had severe bruising to her right side, a back sprain, cuts inside her mouth and a concussion. <\/p>\n

Wilson\u2019s head collided with the side of the cabin, causing a cut above his eye, a bruised hip, a head injury, concussion symptoms and ongoing neck pain.<\/p>\n

Mason had small wounds on his arm and leg, and a wrist sprain.<\/p>\n

After the collision, Wilson\u2019s head was bleeding heavily and he was \u201cnot very coherent\u201d. He kept repeating that he was tired and wanted to go home.<\/p>\n

While Mason was concerned about the people aboard the Ruger, and aware they should stop to offer assistance, he was also worried about Wilson\u2019s head injury. <\/p>\n

They returned to shore, and notified the authorities about the collision. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe skipper of the boat that collided with the Ruger was ordered to pay $950 reparation and make a $6000 emotional harm payment.<\/p>\n

\u2018They have suffered significantly\u2019<\/p>\n

At sentencing, the judge said Mason could not be faulted for responding as he did, as the circumstances \u201cprevented [him] from what would otherwise be a clear response to stay\u201d. <\/p>\n

Wilson was charged under the Maritime Transport Act, having failed to take action to avoid a collision, to maintain a proper lookout, and to maintain a safe speed.<\/p>\n

Wilson couldn\u2019t remember what happened just before the collision and said it was possible he had fallen asleep.<\/p>\n

He co-operated with the investigation and wrote a letter of apology to the skipper of the Ruger.<\/p>\n

Judge Paul Geoghegan said at sentencing in the Tauranga District Court last week that it was clear that although Wilson had not intended to cause any harm to the family, \u201cthey have suffered significantly, particularly in terms of psychological stress, which is not surprising in the circumstances\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judge adopted a starting point of an $8000 fine, before applying a 25% for guilty plea, and a further 10% for Wilson\u2019s co-operation with the authorities and previously clear record.<\/p>\n

This resulted in an end fine of $5200. He was also ordered to pay reparation of $950,and make an emotional harm payment of $6000.<\/p>\n

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man then reversed, attempting to avoid a collision, but the oncoming boat struck the bow of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,11730,28822,5532,34094,13982,2109,2209,19631,2082,51500,76352,296,5836,17707,6805,13233,3180,111,43,139,69,6744,312,3546,76350,10809,1227,1361,165,2846,76351,19054,6038],"class_list":["post-105583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-afternoon","tag-beautiful","tag-boat","tag-collision","tag-continues","tag-family","tag-father","tag-fined","tag-for","tag-happy","tag-haunt","tag-into","tag-lost","tag-maunganui","tag-memory","tag-mount","tag-near","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-place","tag-says","tag-sean","tag-skipper","tag-sunday","tag-tauranga","tag-that","tag-their","tag-them","tag-traumatic","tag-turned","tag-wilson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}