Elderly couple 'lucky to survive' Wellington sinking

The owners of a stricken yacht were forced to watch from a life boat as it sank in stormy seas off the coast of Plimmerton, according to one of their rescuers.

The couple in their 70s, who were described by police as lucky to be alive, were forced to bail when their 7.6m yacht sank after striking rocks at around 9.45pm last night.

The couple called police from a cellphone and managed to climb into a small dinghy as their yacht lost power and took on water in choppy seas, eventually sinking in around 22m of water.

Life Flight rescue helicopter crewman Dave Greenberg said the conditions, a mixture of rough seas and complete darkness, made for a difficult rescue attempt last night and they were reduced to hovering above, marking the spot while the Coastguard rescued the pair.

"As we were overhead we watched the yacht go under... I watched everything but the last little corner go down," he said.

"It was a bit dramatic, actually."

Because the boat was small with conditions described as dark and windy, Mr Greenberg said they were unable to winch the couple off their boat.

"We definitely needed someone on the water. The conditions weren't suitable for winching at night off a small dinghy."

"Night winching and sea winching are the two most difficult things we do and doing them at the same time is virtually impossible."

The couple were picked up by the Mana Coastguard and taken to the Plimmerton Yacht Club. They were examined by ambulance staff on shore and were able to return home last night.

Coastguard spokesman Trevor Farmer said the "plucky" couple, whom he believed were long-time owners of the yacht, had encountered problems from the start, blowing a main sail coming out of Pelorus Sound at the top of the South island.

They had taken 12 hours to get to where the spot they were rescued from - which Mr Farmer described as about four hours too long, given their boat size.

"They'd had a fairly big day with things not going right from the early morning by the sounds of things."

He described the conditions at seas as rough.

"It wasn't a raging gale but it wasn't flat... it wasn't very nice."

They were cold but otherwise unharmed after taking all the necessary precautions, Mr Greenberg said.

"They were definitely soaked like they had been in the water at some point. I'd imagine getting from the yacht to the dinghy they might have ended up in the water a little bit. Or it might have just been very wet in the dinghy itself."

The couple, who were well equipped and wearing life jackets, remained calm throughout the ordeal.

The yacht and dinghy were both lost, and were expected to wash ashore in the next few days.

The women declined to comment at this stage saying the experience was "traumatic enough".

- © Fairfax NZ News