Yacht’s saga ends safely

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 24

Yacht’s saga ends safely

PA Whangarei ; A saga to save the 12m steel yacht Bakaal, which began on a remote Vanuatu Island 15 months ago, ended in desperate success at Tutukaka on Wednesday afternoon.

The yacht, holed and badly beaten after being thrown on to a rock on Tuesday night, then miracuously washed free, was towed into Tutukaka by the

game-fishing launch Kitty Vane. The owner-skipper, Mr

Ron van Prehn, aged 42, of Auckland, and his Solomon Island crew member, Mr Jamie Ngatonga, survived their ordeal with no more than minor personal injuries.

Without a star or sun shot

in three days, Mr van Prehn said that his only worry as he approached the New Zealand coast had been his uncertainty about his position.

His problems were compounded when the yacht’s steering system failed.

About 4 a.m. yesterday a huge wave threw the yacht on to rocks somewhere south of Cape Brett. A second wave swept over the craft.

“I thought it was the end of Bakaal,” Mr van Prehn said last evening.

“but a third huge wave followed. It spun the boat round 180 degrees and as the surf raced back out it carried us with it at speed into the clear water,” Mr nan Prehn said.

The Northland Harbour Board tug Waitangi took the yacht in tow about 11.30 a.m. and handed it over to the Kitty Vane about two miles off Tutukaka in heavy seas.

The yacht’s series of misfortunes began in 1982, when she went aground on the remote island of Hiu, in the northern group of Vanuatu. After several months, Mr van Prehn managed to remove the yacht’s damaged keel and drag it ashore for repairs.