A Bay of Islands yachtie drowned when he fell from his dinghy while rowing to his boat during wild weather in the Bay of Islands, a coroner has found.
Auckland Coroner Deborah Marshall said Ronald Earle Raison, known as Earle, aged 48, was last seen leaving a friend's home in Russell on the night of August 13, 2010 to return to his boat Azarmyth, moored in Matauwhi Bay.
The alarm was raised the next morning when his upturned dinghy was found washed up on a nearby peninsula. Russell residents searched the area on foot and in boats, and the police dive squad spent two days scouring the bottom of the bay.
Mr Raison's body was found two weeks to the day after he disappeared, on the other side of the Bay of Islands, on the shore of Te Puna Inlet, Purerua Peninsula, about 15km north of Russell. A toxicology report found that his blood alcohol level was 86 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal driving limit is 80mg. Cannabis was also found in his blood.
Evidence presented by a pathologist to the hearing into the death showed it was likely he died from drowning and police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.