{"id":16286,"date":"2026-01-14T20:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16286"},"modified":"2026-01-14T20:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T07:00:07","slug":"men-found-clinging-to-life-jacket-bucket-and-petrol-can-after-boat-capsizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16286","title":{"rendered":"Men found clinging to life jacket, bucket and petrol can after boat capsizes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Three men who spent six hours in the water after their boat overturned did not have time to grab hold of anything, the Coastguard says.<\/p>\n<p>They were found clinging to a single life jacket, a bucket and a petrol can off Tolaga Bay on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>A major search and rescue effort was launched before midday after the commercial crayfishing vessel flipped.<\/p>\n<p>Police, the Coastguard, the Rescue Coordination Centre, Defence Force, Surf Lifesaving and local rescue helicopter were all involved.<\/p>\n<p>Other nearby commercial operators also helped.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photo-captioned photo-captioned-full photo-cntr eight_col \"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.rnztools.nz\/rnz\/image\/upload\/s--yyfjF5sV--\/ar_16:10,c_fill,f_auto,g_auto,q_auto,w_1050\/v1768372783\/4JUSW5W_NZDF_photo_Tolaga_bay_rescue_14_Jan_2026_RESCUE_COASTGUARD_1_jpg?_a=BACCd2AD\" alt=\"Three men spent six hours in the water off Tolaga Bay before a major search and rescue effort reached them.\" width=\"1050\" height=\"590\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\"><span class=\"credit\">Photo:\u00a0Supplied \/ NZDF<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Coastguard Gisborne skipper Aaron Boyle said the 7-metre boat capsized suddenly when it got tangled in a craypot line.<\/p>\n<p>The men were near hypothermic and fatigued when eventually found &#8211; with one in a moderate condition and taken to hospital by ambulance.<\/p>\n<p>Boyle said the men were extremely fortunate.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their boat overturned quite suddenly. They didn&#8217;t have time to grab anything,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are so lucky. Six hours in the water is a long time &#8211; especially with all three people holding onto one life jacket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rescue Coordination Centre watch leader Alex Taylor said: &#8220;This was a fantastic example of agencies and local operators working together to achieve the best possible outcome. Everyone responded quickly and professionally, and that teamwork made all the difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>~ RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Three men who spent six hours in the water after their boat overturned did not have time to grab hold of anything, the Coastguard says. They were found clinging to a single life jacket, a bucket and a petrol can off Tolaga Bay on Wednesday. A major search and rescue effort was launched before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,222,208,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-latest-news","category-lifestyle","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16289,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16286\/revisions\/16289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}