Yachties rescued in wild seas off NZ 

 

NZ Defence Force

Passing a rope to the stricken yacht.

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Three people rescued from their yacht in wild seas north of New Zealand will arrive in Auckland this morning, Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) says.

The navy patrol boat HMNZS Otago weas to dock this morning with three sailors rescued yesterday from the yacht Django, on a return voyage from Fiji, and a heroic story of a rescue swimmer in huge seas.

And its been revealed that over the weekend an even more dramatic incident occurred in which a yacht toppled end over end and broke up, throwing three men into the sea.

But they too were rescued, this time by a Spanish fishing boat.

In the latest incident two men and a woman on the Auckland yacht Django sent a mayday call this morning when the boat’s rudder became detached.

They were 300 kilometres north of North Cape, on a return journey from Fiji and were ready to abandon ship.

Two ships in the area were sent to their aid, with Otago arriving shortly before the log carrier Laura Bulker, MNZ said.

Watched over by a patrolling New Zealand Air Force Orion, Django’s crew got into a liferaft, but as it was being hauled across to the Otago they feared the larger vessel was about to roll over and crush them in the heavy seas, and they cut the rope.

The Otago then sent a swimmer into the water with another rope, to tie the liferaft on again and bring it alongside.

Django skipper Ben Costello, Bex Heikema and Andrew Cooke were rescued but their yacht and life raft had to be abandoned. The two craft were still afloat when Otago left.

On Friday Auckland ketch Finn toppled end over end while spiralling out of control off the face of a wave.

The yacht broke up and lost its mast in the hole at the bottom of the 8-metre wave.

The men sent out a distress call and early Saturday an Orion found them north of New Zealand.

Spanish fishing boat Carmen Tere was asked to pick up the three crew, who were all from Wellington.

Later on Saturday they transferred the three men, to the container ship Southern Lilly, and they arrived in Auckland on Monday sporting cuts and bruises.

– Stuff