The Ruger was damaged when another boat collided with it in February 2024, near Mount Maunganui. The family on board were injured, and the skipper of the other boat has been fined and ordered to pay reparation. Composite image.
A Tauranga father says his family lost their “happy place” after a beautiful Sunday afternoon on their boat turned into a traumatic memory that continues to haunt them.
The family had earlier enjoyed a picnic on Matakana Island and were fishing near C Beacon, off Mount Maunganui, in February 2024 when the man spotted an approaching boat.
It was about 200 or 300m away and continued towards them without slowing down.
The man began to yell to get the skipper’s attention, but the approaching boat still didn’t stop.
The man then reversed, attempting to avoid a collision, but the oncoming boat struck the bow of the family’s boat, the Ruger.
“By slamming our boat hard into reverse and turning to face the danger, I’d instinctively and without hesitation put myself directly between the oncoming boat and my family,” the man said in his victim impact statement, which was read in court recently.
On board the other boat, the Dueller, were skipper Sean Wilson and his friend Stephan Mason, who were returning after an afternoon of snorkelling and fishing.
Wilson was fatigued, and thinks he might have fallen asleep.
Mason was looking to the left, at people walking around the Mount, and didn’t see the Ruger.
When the collision happened, the father hit the windscreen, the children were screaming, and he looked up to see his wife bleeding from the mouth.
“The impact was brutal, hard, and loud,” the man said.
“My wife was thrown forward and sustained a full face impact to the left side of her face and heavy impact to her back and abdomen,” he said.
His then 5-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son both suffered bruising to their faces.
“Having two small children in a state of terror, screaming in pain and seeing their mother with blood coming from her mouth is a situation I do not wish any father or husband to have to face.”
The other boat left, and the man made a mayday call, before slowly heading back to Pilot Bay, relieved to see the boat wasn’t taking on water.
The man said all of his family had trouble sleeping after the incident and battled with emotional distress.
The children were now frightened of going on boats, and his daughter lacked confidence going to school, which she’d only just started, after the collision.
The man’s wife said her concussion had proved “extremely difficult” to cope with.
“Due to my head pain, I had to try and rest my eyes as much as possible. However, every time I did this, I relived the accident,” she said in her victim impact statement.
“The moment of impact and how quickly the accident happened, the moment kept replaying in our heads over and over again.”
She’d suffered nightmares and had difficulty sleeping, tormented by thinking over the worst-case scenario.
“The fact that I was unable to reach [the children before impact] ... I kept replaying in my mind if [my husband] had not reversed the boat in the way he did, we would have experienced a very different reality.”
The family had only recently been reunited in New Zealand, after having been separated in different countries during Covid.
They’d moved to Tauranga, purchased the boat, and used it over the summer months to create happy memories as a family.
“Having the boat was an outlet that the whole family could experience together, it was our happy place,” the mother said.
“On that Sunday, the boat was taken away, and it felt as if we were left shattered in pieces.”
She said they lived “with the fallout of the accident every day”, but she hoped they would rebuild, and she would “support [her] children to grow their love for the sea once more”.
Wilson was charged with operating a ship in a manner causing unnecessary danger or risk to a person or property.
He had been cruising at an estimated speed of 18 to 20 knots; boats are meant to slow to 5 knots when within 50m of another vessel.
The impact caused injuries to all those on board both vessels.
The father suffered bruising to his chest, a back sprain, and his head hit the windscreen. His wife had severe bruising to her right side, a back sprain, cuts inside her mouth and a concussion.
Wilson’s head collided with the side of the cabin, causing a cut above his eye, a bruised hip, a head injury, concussion symptoms and ongoing neck pain.
Mason had small wounds on his arm and leg, and a wrist sprain.
After the collision, Wilson’s head was bleeding heavily and he was “not very coherent”. He kept repeating that he was tired and wanted to go home.
While Mason was concerned about the people aboard the Ruger, and aware they should stop to offer assistance, he was also worried about Wilson’s head injury.
They returned to shore, and notified the authorities about the collision.
At sentencing, the judge said Mason could not be faulted for responding as he did, as the circumstances “prevented [him] from what would otherwise be a clear response to stay”.
Wilson was charged under the Maritime Transport Act, having failed to take action to avoid a collision, to maintain a proper lookout, and to maintain a safe speed.
Wilson couldn’t remember what happened just before the collision and said it was possible he had fallen asleep.
He co-operated with the investigation and wrote a letter of apology to the skipper of the Ruger.
Judge Paul Geoghegan said at sentencing in the Tauranga District Court last week that it was clear that although Wilson had not intended to cause any harm to the family, “they have suffered significantly, particularly in terms of psychological stress, which is not surprising in the circumstances”.
The judge adopted a starting point of an $8000 fine, before applying a 25% for guilty plea, and a further 10% for Wilson’s co-operation with the authorities and previously clear record.
This resulted in an end fine of $5200. He was also ordered to pay reparation of $950,and make an emotional harm payment of $6000.
Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.