RESCUE OF YACHT

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 12

RESCUE OF YACHT

Pilot, Crew Praised Captain W. V. Wood, who commanded the pilot cutter Wairangi, and his crew, were praised by the Lyttelton Harbour Board yesterday for the rescue of . two young men and two young women from the yacht Ruakuri in bad weather last month. “Captain Wood and the crew are to be congratulated on their fine piece of seamanship,” the chairman (Mr F. L Sutton) said. The harbourmaster (Captain D. Holden) reported that the occupants of the yacht had been rescue after Captain Wood had boarded a life raft and gone t 6 the yacht, using a towing hawser as a guide rope. The raft capsized on the way back to the Wairangi and the occupants thrown into the water. For a time Captain Wood was in serious difficulty because a line to the sea anchor had caught around one of his legs and had to be cut adrift “The whole crew should be commended for the successful completion of this operation under very severe weather conditions, and in particular Captain Wood, who took the life raft over to the yacht at grave risk to himself,” Captain Holden said. The board also saw a letter from Mrs N. Candy, of Auckland, the mother of one of the young women rescue, to Captain Wood. “They (the girls) now realise just how easy it is not only to get into danger themselves but to involve others as well,” Mrs Candy wrote. “They know, far better than we do, just how near you all were to losing your lives and realise how much they owe you and your men and are very grateful indeed.”