YACHT WRECKED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25964, 3 October 1945, Page 4

YACHT WRECKED

SKIPPER DROWNED ONE MAN MISSING THIRD STRUGGLES ASHORE (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 2. Only 40 hours out from Wellington Heads on a proposed voyage to Tahiti, the 39-foot yacht Siren met disaster off Cape Pailiser in the early hours of this morning. Her headsails having been blown out by a particularly strong head wind and her propeller entangled with the wreckage, the Siren drifted through the dark hours of last night at the mercy of heavy seas. At about 5 a.m., after the wind had veered to the south, the yacht was driven toward lee rocks. As she was about to hit a rock the crew dived overboard. Only one. Jack Hale, succeeded in reaching the shore about a mile away. The body of the skipper, Fred Haywood, was washed up on the beach about a quarter of a mile south-east of Cape Pailiser lighthouse, but no trace has yet been found of the third member of the crew, L. F. ("Fritz”) Zimmerman.

An 111-fated Venture

The Siren first aftempted to clear Port Nicholson last Wednesday, but heavy seas, a torn sail; and a defective motor compelled the crew to return to Welington. Jack Haywood, a brother of the skipper, was on board the Siren on that occasion, but this week he was delayed in Wellington and intended to join the yacht when she called at Auckland.

According to Hale steady progress was made on Sunday till the yacht rounded Cape Pailiser. Once into the open sea a strong northerly gale was encountered, and it was decided to stand about for Wellington, where the crew intended to shelter till more favourable weather prevailed. Heavy seas swept the decks while the Siren was passing Pailiser Bay on the return journey yesterday, and early in the afternoon a particularly strong gust blew out the headsail sheets and the halyard trailed overboard. The seas were running too high to enable the crew to carry out any repair work.

Blown on to Rocks

The trailing sheets and the remains of the halyard caught round the propeller, thus rendering it useless. The crew’s only means of salvation, the remaining sails, were insufficient to drive the Siren through the windswept seas, and the sea anchor was used to keep her bowsprit headed into the wind. The yacht could do little but drift, however, and with a change in the wind about 2 o’clock this morning she was blown on to the rocks about a mile south-west of the Cape Pailiser lighthouse. Hale told the people at whose house he sheltered after his ordeal that the Siren did not strike the rocks till a considerable time after the crew had abandoned her. When it was seen that she was going to pile-up the crew hastily prepared for the water, and when they were about a mile from the shore they abandoned the yacht. As she approached a large jagged rock the current swung the bows away from the rock, and when the floundering men saw the boat had slid past the rock they struggled to reboard her. Hale alone succeeded in doing so, and in the inky blackness tried to throw lines to his companions. The turbulent seas swept them away out of sight, however, and that was the last time he saw them alive. For a short time the Siren drifted further toward the shore and foundered near Black Rock. Hale was swept overboard, and, after being continually buffeted in a strenuous swim, managed to reach the shore nearby. A landing shed afforded shelter, and he lay there exhausted till about 9 o'clock, when he made his way to the house of the Cape Pailiser lighthouse keeper.

Body Washed Ashore

Later in the morning the body of Fred Haywood was found washed up on the beach near the lighthouse. Two pillows strapped around his body had kept him afloat, but it is doubtful whether he was alive for long in the water. During the day wreckage from the yacht continually drifted into Pailiser Bay Beach, but at 11 o’clock to-night no sign had been found of the third member of the crew. The lifebelts which Hale said Haywood and Zimmerman had been wearing were among the washed-up wreckage. The Wellington Harbour Board’s tug Toia made a fruitless search of the coast near Cape Pailiser this afternoon.