Hawke's Bay Coastguard used a drone to locate the watercraft. Photo / Hawke's Bay Coastguard
Hawke's Bay Coastguard used a drone to locate the watercraft. Photo / Hawke's Bay Coastguard
Word of a TikTok livestream being filmed by a group of washed-up boaties miraculously made its way to Hawke’s Bay Coastguard, sparking a search mission.
Coastguard skipper Henry van Tuel was told about the video on Sunday about 3.51pm. This was the first time he had been alerted tosomeone in trouble via the social media platform.
“I just cannot believe that,” he said. “I thought this is bizarre, I haven’t struck this one before.”
Van Tuel was at home following a morning training when he received an unusual message from a TikTok viewer.
“I got a text from somebody, not sure if we had rescued him or not, and he literally said, ‘Are you aware of this?’ Somebody is livestreaming this on TikTok,” he said.
Henry van Tuel said four people managed to get off the boat and swim to shore. Photo / Hawke's Bay Coastguard.
“It was the people from the boat, but on the beach.
“The guys weren’t even asking for help; they were just saying this is what we are doing, and somebody was concerned enough and let us know.”
Because of the 5.5m aluminium boat already being on shore, van Tuel said they rang police and the harbourmaster to see if they had been informed which he said they had not.
Police confirmed they had no reports of any water-related incidents from around that time on Sunday.
Van Tuel said the Coastguard crew had just the video to go on. They were faced with a large search area but narrowed it down to a beach north of Napier.
“We decided not to take the boat, it was such a wide area, we thought we could split the area up and there was two or three of us that went out.”
Hawke's Bay Coastguard used the drone to save time and locate the boat quickly. Photo / Hawke's Bay Coastguard. 18 January 2026.
Then came the next technological advantage to the mission. They used a drone to locate the boat from their point on the beach just north of the Esk River mouth.
“The drone found the boat, and then we walked the beach to check out the situation,” van Tuel said.
“Talking with some local residents, it appears that a boat, while returning to Napier, ran out of fuel, and although they deployed an anchor, it dragged, and with the onshore wind, they ended up on the beach.”
Van Tuel said as the boat drifted close enough to the beach, the four people onboard jumped overboard and swam ashore through swells, just under a metre high.
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“The residents provided blankets and support to the four divers and helped to secure it.”
Van Tuel said the boat had ended up being side-on to the waves and had rolled. The vessel suffered damage to the windscreen and a window.
Van Tuel said this morning that he hadn’t heard any updates overnight and understood the Harbourmaster would take over recovery of the boat that was left anchored in place.
Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.
