Disabled Launch Sinks

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31134, 10 August 1966, Page 19

Disabled Launch Sinks

(N.Z. Press Association) WHANGAREI, August 9. The 30ft fishing launch Kauii, which was abandoned after it developed engine trouble and a leak, sank off the Northland coast yesterday while being towed by a Whangarei trawler. The launch, built by its owner, Mr A. Schofield, of Auckland, was on its first major trip up the coast when it began to leak badly. Mr Schofield and a passenger, Mr W. Anderson, also of Auckland, rowed from the launch to Hen Island, 20

miles off the Whangarei heads, In a dinghy. “It was leaking at the rate of 200 buckets an hour,” Mr Schofield said. When the men last saw the launch it was drifting away. They landed on the island about 7 a.m., and.were rescued by the Whangarei trawler Kaiora about 3 p.m. after they lit a fire to attract the trawler’s attention. Another Whangarei trawler, the Angus McKay, found the launch and took it in tow, but it sank after an hour. Mr Schofield earlier sailed the Kauii from Auckland to Leigh on the east coast of Northland. On Sunday he set out with Mr Anderson for Matapouri. After the launch developed engine trouble about 4 p.m. they pulled into Bream Bay

and dropped anchor. Because of strong winds the launch started to drift out to sea and they hoisted a sail. They decided to abandon the launch early yesterday morning when it became dangerously waterlogged. Mr Schofield spent six months building the Kauii.