A woman was seriously hurt when a yacht was smashed into pieces and sank within seconds of it and another boat colliding on Auckland’s congested harbour yesterday.
The woman, believed to be in her 50s, was thrown into the water from a classic yacht and caught under the bow of the other craft.
Last night, she was in a stable condition in Auckland City Hospital.
A man also on the classic yacht, racing in the annual Anniversary Day Regatta, was thrown into the water too, but was unhurt.
Charles St Clair Brown, the skipper of the other vessel, the 60ft sail boat Antaeus, said last night that he was slowly motoring back to Westhaven Marina when the collision occurred just after midday.
“The sail boat actually just came across the bow of my boat and I didn’t actually see it because there were a lot of yachts around and I was trying to manoeuvre my boat up the harbour - it was literally just one of those accidents.”
Yachtsman Mark Shepherd was racing his 40-footer, Origin, in the regatta with three friends when they saw the Antaeus and the 32-foot vintage craft on a collision course.
“We frantically waved and whistled and shouted … but it was to no avail.”
Mr Shepherd said the vintage craft was split it in two. “The man on board must have just seen it out of the corner of his eye and jumped overboard.
