Executive summary
On Friday 23 June 2006 at about 0627, the Lady Luck, was returning from a fishing trip in bad weather when it collided with Black (Matatapu) Rock near the southern extremity of Motiti Island. The Skipper of the vessel was able to transmit a distress call on very high frequency channel 16 before he and the other 3 persons on board boarded the liferaft and the vessel sank. Maritime Radio, the Coastguard, the operations centre of the Port of Tauranga and another fishing vessel all received the distress message.
Maritime Radio, the Coastguard, Port of Tauranga and the fishing vessel all responded to the distress call with the Port of Tauranga pilot vessel, Tauranga II, arriving on the scene at about 0720. The crew of the Lady Luck were taken on board the Tauranga II at about 0745 and ferried ashore for medical checks in hospital while the Coastguard vessel Rescue 1 recovered the liferaft.
The 4 crewmembers of the Lady Luck were released from hospital after being treated for slight hypothermia.
Safety issues identified included:
• the miscalculation of leeway in heavy weather conditions
• the loss of electronic navigational equipment, possibly due to the ingress of small amounts of water
• the danger of over reliance on one method of position fixing and plotting.