Search continues for owner of boat

Authorities are struggling to contact the owners of a shipwrecked boat weeks after the vessel got into difficulty in rough seas off the East Coast.

On April 9, the crew of exfishing trawler San Rosa sent out a mayday about 10 nautical miles off Tokomaru Bay, after encountering four-metre swells en route to Marlborough.

The boat’s three crew members, plus a dog, were winched to safety by helicopter.

San Rosa then drifted unattended for six days before beaching on April 15 at a remote section of beach near Tikitiki, two hours north of Gisborne.

Gisborne District Council harbourmaster Peter Buell says he still hasn’t been able to reach the owners, despite numerous attempts.

That included sending letters to the owner’s last known address, messaging their cellphone, and trying to get hold of them through the person who said they were representing the owners at the time of the incident.

‘‘We’re trying every way we can to get in touch with this guy. But no response so far, and I doubt we’ll get any,’’ Buell said.

The council put a public notice in the Nelson Mail and Gisborne Herald as a final step before taking matters into its own hands.

The notice was titled Disposal of Wrecked Vessel and directed the owners to remove the boat from Gisborne waters by close of business last Friday, warning the council would take matters into its own hands if this was not achieved. Failure to act as required could incur a penalty of up to 12 months’ imprisonment or a fine of up to $10,000 under the Maritime Transport Act 1994, the notice warned.

If the owner couldn’t be reached, the boat would be removed by the council and the bill sent to the relevant parties, Buell previously said.

Buell indicated San Rosa had seen better days.

There had been more looting of the boat in the past two weeks, he understood, including people taking to it with saws.

FRAGMENTS OF SAN ROSA’S HISTORY REVEALED

Little was known about San Rosa at the time it first made headlines, other than it being an ex-fishing trawler sailing from Tauranga to Marlborough.

But Local Democracy Reporting was contacted by an Auckland resident who provided further background.

Kerron Morris, 73, said the name of the boat piqued his interest when it made the news, because his uncle Bill Morris had skippered one of the same name in the 1960s.

After hearing the boat’s specifications – 18 metres in length and 55 tonnes in weight – he realised it was the same one.

Morris said he didn’t know a lot about the vessel, but believed it was built in Auckland.

A small dish commemorating its creation indicates it was owned by an Auckland and Sydney-based company called Sandford Ltd, and first launched in 1955.

Morris said that when he was about 13, his uncle Bill took him to White Island on the trawler for a leisure trip, most likely unbeknownst to the company.

At night, boats were required to radio their position to a control centre for safety, but Morris said that on one occasion his uncle deliberately gave the wrong co-ordinates because he didn’t want to crowd the good fishing spots.

‘‘He radioed in his position and when he’d finished doing that, I said ‘we’re nowhere near there’,’’ Morris recalls.

‘‘He said ‘yeah, I know. I’m not telling them where I am’. He reckons if he’d told them where he was, by morning all the other fishermen would be there.’’