Lyle is still trying to locate the owner.<\/p>\n
Bad weather that marred the start of the holiday season meant a quieter time on the water with fewer patrols than intended. However, staff reported \u201cgenerally pretty good\u201d behaviour from boaties, Lyle said. <\/p>\n
There were many people in vessels 6 metres or less who needed to wear lifejackets, not just carry them, he said. Statistics showed those people were most vulnerable to drowning. <\/p>\n
Despite high winds and big swells, some boaties still ventured out, including two catamarans that overturned in separate incidents, Lyle said. <\/p>\n
The first made headlines because of a dog, Rimu, lost overboard and later found safe, probably thanks to his lifejacket. <\/p>\n
Lyle claimed the incident was because of \u201cpoor navigation\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was at Elizabeth Reef – well charted and clearly visible, and they ran right into it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The boat remains upside down on Sandy Bay Beach. Lyle has contacted the owner and insurer to arrange removal, which is a priority. <\/p>\n
The wreckage of the catamaran in the surf at Sandy Bay on the Tutuk\u0101k\u0101 Coast. Photo \/ Rowan Freeman – Life in Style Photography<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important to remove it soon as it\u2019s a hazard at a popular surfing beach,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The other catamaran, a larger vessel, nearly sank after hitting a rock – again likely due to poor navigation, Lyle said. It had since been hauled out. <\/p>\n
Small vessels obstructing large ships \u2014 a breach of navigation safety bylaws \u2014 is also becoming common, Lyle said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had problems in Whang\u0101rei with small boats blocking the main shipping channel. Ships can\u2019t easily go around due to shallow waters, forcing crews to either stop or risk grounding \u2014 or worse, hitting the smaller boat.\u201d <\/p>\n
On the afternoon of December 27, the concrete ship MV Aotearoa Chief encountered a small pleasure craft anchored mid-channel in Shell Cut.<\/p>\n
Despite five warning blasts, the smaller vessel, named Le Bateau, failed to move out of the way. <\/p>\n
On Boxing Day, the large concrete carting ship MV Aotearoa Chief had to take difficult evasive action to avoid hitting a small pleasure craft anchored in Whang\u0101rei’s main shipping channel. <\/p>\n
The Aotearoa Chief, constrained by its deep hull, slowed to minimum steerage speed and altered course to starboard. Photos show the small craft passing close down the port side.<\/p>\n
Lyle is trying to track down Le Bateau\u2019s owner and has asked anyone with information to call the 24\/7 maritime hotline on 0800 504 639. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople [in smaller boats] don\u2019t realise ships can\u2019t easily go around them. Large vessels look slow, but their speed is deceptive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor crews on the [ship\u2019s] bridge, it\u2019s quite scary. We\u2019ve done quite a bit of publicity around it, trying to get people to understand that, if a ship\u2019s going up the main channel, move out the way.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody minds them fishing in the channel if nothing is happening, but you\u2019ve got to keep a lookout. <\/p>\n
Lyle said he\u2019d seen people in the Bay of Islands so focused on fishing that they miss seeing a 300m ship bearing down on them. <\/p>\n
As part of its awareness campaign, the harbourmaster\u2019s office has posted a video to the Northland Regional Council\u2019s Facebook featuring a North Tugz marine pilot speaking about the issue. <\/p>\n
Lyle\u2019s report wasn\u2019t all doom and gloom. He said that as the weather improved, more boats were arriving in Northland, including some impressive international superyachts visible from numerous tourist vantage spots. <\/p>\n
Sarah Curtis is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on a wide range of issues. She has nearly 20 years\u2019 experience in journalism, much of which she spent reporting on the courts in Gisborne and on the East Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lyle is still trying to locate the owner. Bad weather that marred the start of the holiday season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10791,134033,95,192,16717,38602,45456,134032,96883,6187,9089,5829,43368,134036,111,43,139,1067,24926,69,9769,29848,134035,60509,134034,312,38052,14939,48471,8218],"class_list":["post-223865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-ageing","tag-anchoring","tag-and","tag-are","tag-becoming","tag-boats","tag-channel","tag-harbourmaster","tag-hazards","tag-lives","tag-maintained","tag-many","tag-navigation","tag-navigational","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northland","tag-northlands","tag-nz","tag-owners","tag-poor","tag-prone","tag-properly","tag-risking","tag-says","tag-sinking","tag-succession","tag-vessels","tag-warns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223865","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=223865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}