One more bad night for stuck launch

Several attempts to recover the stricken launch using ropes tied to a digger failed. Photo / Alan Gibson

A luxury boat run aground on a Bay of Plenty beach was yesterday facing another night of pummelling from high seas, after a day of failed rescue attempts.

Rope after rope snapped as diggers tried to pull the water-logged, 20-tonne boat loose from wet sand on Mount Maunganui.

The 16m launch, estimated to be worth $400,000, hit a rock early yesterday morning on its way home from Fiji.

Police sergeant Craig Madden said a "navigational error" had caused the skipper to miss Tauranga's harbour entrance, and hit a rock about 1km off the beach.

The boat was initially anchored far from shore, but water gushed in through a hole in its hull and it was brought in to within 100m of dry sand at low tide.