Car upside down in Napier water turns out to be log

The log that sparked a large emergency response in Napier on Friday morning looked like a car from 200 metres away, Coastguard skipper Henry Van Tuel said. Photo / Supplied

On Friday morning a person out walking on Perfume Point in Napier spotted a car floating upside down in the sea.

They rang police, who along with firefighters raced to the Nelson Quay scene about 9.35am.

Coastguard skipper Henry Van Tuel fired up the boat and was quickly able to spot the object floating west of Napier Port, as a St John ambulance was notified to be on standby in case there were people in the water with it.

But once Van Tuel had pulled the boat up close, he realised it wasn't the life-or-death emergency he'd been expecting.

"Yeah, it was a log," he told Hawke's Bay Today with a laugh.

"I've got to be fair to the person who called it in though - from 200 metres away it looked like a car with its wheels sticking up in the water."

Coastguard towed the log back to shore. Photo / Supplied

Van Tuel and crew quickly hooked the large piece of driftwood to a rope and towed it back to shore to stop anyone hitting it, and to prevent any other calls about it.

He said it was a good callout and not at all frivolous.

"I wouldn't want anyone to think they shouldn't call this type of stuff in.

"Although this one turned out to be a false alarm, I would rather check out 100 logs in the sea than say 'nah' and ignore it and it turns out to be the real deal."