YACHTSMEN'S ORDEAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21999, 4 January 1935, Page 10

YACHTSMEN'S ORDEAL

CAPSIZE IN CHOPPY SEA LONG STRUGGLE TO SAFETY [by telegraph—owy correspondent] GISBORNE. Thursday Four young men who ventured out into the Gisborne roadstead in a homemade sailing boat yesterday had an experience they will long remember. The sea was calm in the lee of the land, but about halfway across the bay the boat encountered a heavy chop, and, in the brisk north-westerly wind, it became a matter of difficulty to turn about.

The men decided to make for the shelter of Young Nick's Head. They bore their weight on the windward gunwale to offset the effect of tho wind, and were leaning well out over the water when the rudder came adrift, the eye-bolts securing the rudder to the hull having pulled out under the strain of the choppy seas. Immediately the craft fell away in the wind, and, righting herself suddenly, threw all four men into the water and then capsized.

Three of the young men were strong swimmers and managed to right the vessel after a good deal of trouble. The four of them clambered aboard and then began the process of baling out, a jJrolonged and difficult task. It was then discovered that one of the two oars with which tho small boat was equipped had drifted away. The rudder was useless.

Hoisting a shortened sail the men continued their effort to reach the cliffs. At this stage the journey was most trying, for the boat was unablo to sail into the wind and was constantly falling away to leeward. It soon became obvious that the party would be fortunate if it was not carried far out into the Pacific Ocean. The men made a desperate effort to keep their craft on its course, and, steering with the remaining oar, eventually brought her close enough to the point of the cliffs to enable them to drag the craft through the surf to the beach. Throughout the afternoon they struggled with the boat, at times carrying it bodily, and at favourable opportunities launching it and towing it through the surf. Finally they reached a point one and a-half miles from Gisborne, where the boat was safely beached.