Captain Calamity of the Antipodes

12:23 AM Sun 8 Feb 2009 GMT

'Bauke Boersma and his wrecked yacht - photo by Warren Buckland Nelson Mail' .

Who said all New Zealanders were good sailors? A yacht bought on Thursday in Napier New Zealand was on the rocks early the next morning after its inexperienced new skipper came aground at Clifton Beach on his way to Nelson.

The young would-be sailor, Dutch-born Bauke Boersma, had used his savings to fulfil a dream and buy a yacht he could sail to Australia.

But his first voyage was ill-fated.

Mr Boersma, who is known as 'Bugs' to the many Nelsonians he serves at the Fish and Chip Cafe, had been planning to sail his 'new home' from Napier to Nelson.

Mr Boersma travelled to Napier with friend Orla O'Sullivan to buy the 9m steel-hulled yacht Crystal Voyager the previous afternoon, after seeing it on TradeMe.

After trading in his van and handing over his savings of NZ$2500 (US$1300), the 26-year-old was looking forward to sailing the yacht to Nelson. But the pair's first attempt saw the mainsail split as they were heading out of port.

'We got a nice gust of wind. The seam just ripped away and it went `zip'. We thought, `Oh, no',' he told The Nelson Mail.

They returned to port, the previous owner replaced the sail, and they set off again. This time the fuel line to the engine ruptured. Then the fish finder stopped, so he couldn't tell the depth.

Then they decided to anchor at sea, have a rest and think about it tomorrow. However, the anchors were not heavy enough to hold in the ocean. At 1.30am yesterday morning he heard a scraping sound and felt the bottom of his vessel hit the rocks near the Clifton camping ground.

'I got straight up and stuck my head out and looked straight at rocks,' Mr Boersma said. ``It was very scary, of course,'he said, ``But like any disaster, it was a lot of things going wrong at once.'

He said he tried to push the boat off the rocks before realising it was too dangerous, as it was keeling over. The pair scrambled out of the water with their few belongings on their backs.

The yacht was towed by the coastguard about 3pm once the tide had come in enough to lift it.

'I've got no idea how much it will cost, but it's my new home.' Mr Boersma admitted he was not an experienced yachtsman, an opinion backed up by the Hawke's Bay harbourmaster Captain Charlie Rycroft.

``Without interviewing him formally, I can probably say he wasn't prepared for the voyage,' Mr Rycroft said with admirable restraint.

The yacht was towed by the coastguard about 3pm once the tide had come in enough to lift it.

It was then towed to Napier for repairs.

Mr Boersma said the adventure had not put him off trying again once the boat was repaired.

The pair planned to head out for a drink with friends to reflect on the past few days. 'If you fall real hard, you learn real fast. At least we're both safe,' Mr Boersma said.

by BW Media roundup

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Captain Calamity of the Antipodes

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