The end of the race came heart-stoppingly early for 13 sailors
on board a high tech racing yacht off the Northland coast early on
Monday morning.
A couple of loud bangs had the crew of V5 scrambling for emergency
equipment as a broken keel threatened to come loose and capsize the
boat which was competing in the Round the North Island race.
The 16-metre yacht was about 25 kilometres off Ninety Mile Beach when disaster struck. Hours later at high tide the Coastguard guided it to safety across the notorious Hokianga Bar.
Maritime New Zealand received a distress call from V5 early on Monday.
The Coastguard hovered protectively while the crew of V5 waited just off the Hokianga harbour for the channel to become deep enough to take their high tech racing yacht .
The Hokianga bar has a rough reputation but it was a mill pond on Monday morning - ideal conditions for the disabled yacht to make a slow and careful crossing.
Earlier, in the darkness off Ninety Mile Beach, its keel was broken when it hit something large in the water.
"Two o'clock this morning and a couple of loud bangs and the keel's wobbling around. It seemed to have broken the rear hinge," says V5 owner Simon Hull.
Crew say they didn't hear whales in the area, but they could have hit a log or a container.
"It happened in slow motion. It was a bit of a fright, we knew that if something happened to the keel then it could fall off then we'd be in big trouble," says crew member Annabel Anderson.
At the safety of Opononi wharf the damage to the yacht was clear.
V5 has a swing keel which means it's movable on hydraulic arms. It appears that one end of it has come away and it's dangling loosely below the yacht. If the whole thing had sheared off, the yacht would have rolled and sunk.
Crew member Logan Fraser says they dropped sails quickly after the incident. "Everyone sort of did really well, got life jackets out and life rafts on deck ready to go just in case the situation go worse. It was pretty hairy for a while."
Another of the race yachts, Wired, stayed with V5 until help arrived. It has now rejoined the race which is headed to Wellington.
But V5 will arrive home on the back of a truck.
