Maritime chaos has coastguard on alert

Auckland Coast Guard rescue two men after their boat sank. Photo / Westpac Rescue Helicopter

One man is missing at sea and almost a dozen needed rescuing after 24 hours of maritime chaos in the Hauraki Gulf.

Auckland Coast Guard had 25 callouts before 5pm yesterday, in what they said was an "extremely busy day".

"We've had pretty much everything today," Auckland Coast Guard duty officer Mark Leevers said.

Before 11.30am they had three distress calls and five mechanical calls with distress calls for sinking boats, boats catching fire and suffering mechanical breakdowns.

"To have that number of urgent assists in such a short space of time is certainly something of note," Leevers said.

Two men were plucked from the water by the coastguard after their boat sank near Island Bay, off Birkenhead Point in the Waitemata Harbour, about 4km from the Harbour Bridge.

After a search by air and on the water, the men were found about 7.30am yesterday, desperately clutching a mostly submerged 5m fibreglass boat.

A woman from the Te Atatu Boat Club, from where the boat was launched, said the pair were "pretty stressed".

She said the two men launched their boat at 1pm Friday afternoon.

Westpac Helicopter paramedic Bruce Kerr said it took a while to locate the men.

"They had come from Te Atatu. [The boat] had sunk underneath them. It seemed quite sudden. It probably ruined their fishing day," Kerr said. The two men were unhurt.

Three hours after that rescue, another small vessel sank off Kauri Point, also in the Waitemata Harbour. Three people made it to shore safely.

Another vessel caught fire about 9.30am. The Coastguard arrived 25 minutes later but the fire had been put out.

The six people on board were helped to Maraetai and no one was injured, Leevers said.

Two more small vessels also capsized during the day, but no one was injured.

Leevers urged people to check the seaworthiness of their boats and the engines, and said to make sure they had enough fuel and two forms of reliable communication.

Yesterday morning a fisherman was washed off the rocks at Waimakariri near Christchurch. He was picked up by coastguard and taken to Christchurch Hospital with hypothermia.

Last night a searchers were looking for a swimmer who was reported missing about 9.45pm on Friday at Browns Bay beach.

The man was reported as getting into difficulty near a buoy about 200m from shore.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter airlifted a man, in his 50s, from Muriwai Beach after he was dumped by a big wave yesterday afternoon.

The man was transported to Auckland City Hospital suffering from back injuries.

Surf clubs around the country reported a quiet day, despite thousands of people heading for the beach to make the most of fine weather . More than 4000 people watched the Northern Regional Surf Lifesaving Championships at Mt Maunganui.