Survivors make it to Auckland

NEW ZEALAND – The surviving trio of the stricken yacht Platino are safely back in New Zealand and heaping praise on their rescuers.

Crew members Ross McKee and Harry and Victoria McKeogh were picked up by the container ship Southern Lily on Tuesday after high winds and rough

seas swamped their yacht halfway between New Zealand and Fiji.

Auckland boat-builder Nick Saull was hit by the rigging and killed, and another man is still missing, lost at sea. It’s understood the man in his 60s was relatively lightly clothed and not wearing a lifejacket.

The surviving trio arrived in Auckland in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Inspector Vaughan Graham said the tugboat Sea Pelican is on its way to the Platino, about 550km north of New Zealand, to recover Saull’s body which is still on the drifting yacht.

A maritime police officer, is onboard the tugboat on behalf of the coroner, and it is expected to reach the yacht by the end of the week.

One of rescued, Victoria McKeogh, released a statement earlier on behalf of the group, through the email address of the captain of the container ship which rescued them. She said “this was a terrible tragedy of nature”.

The yacht was about 550 kilometres north of Auckland when four-metre waves and 15kmh-plus winds struck it while bound for Fiji on Monday morning, washing the man overboard and bringing down the just refitted yacht’s rigging, killing Saull.

A search and rescue operation was launched and it took a 14-hour detour from the Southern Lily, through high seas, before it was able to reach the Platino.

Ship captain Shashi Prakash said it was a difficult rescue mission in three-metre swells and high winds.

The unsafe conditions meant Saull’s body was left aboard the smashed, leaking yacht adrift without steering.

However an emergency locator beacon had been activated on the abandoned yacht to help track its location, RCCNZ said.

Tributes have rolled in for Saull, who was the director of Brin Wilson Boat Builders and had helped rebuild the Platino.

Saull’s brother Kim Saull said the family were still in a state of shock. He said it was a tragic situation that he was struggling to put into words.

“It’s overwhelmingly sad. He was an incredibly popular guy.”

- PNC sources