Beacon may have saved kayaker's life

Andrew McAuley, the Australian paddler lost off a solo kayak across the Tasman Sea, may have been saved had he strapped his emergency locator beacon to his body and activated it when in distress, say rescuers.

Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) boss John Seward said rescuers would have had an accurate location for McAuley within minutes and a helicopter could have got there within an hour.

Instead, aerial and boat searchers were delayed while RCC staff tried to work out where and who a VHF radio distress call had come from on the night McAuley disappeared on February 9.

After a month at sea, he was only 80km from his Milford Sound destination.

McAuley had not activated his emergency beacon, which was still in his sea kayak found the following day. His body was never recovered.

The RCC gets more hoax calls than genuine distress calls and had received a bogus call the day before McAuley's garbled message was received at 7.13pm.

At a coroner's inquest in Invercargill this week, widow Vicki McAuley said if the RCC had let her hear the whole distress call on the night of McAuley's disappearance it could have made all the difference to his survival.

She could have positively identified the slurred voice as her husband's and Australian kayak designer Paul Hewitson could have calculated McAuley's position that night for searchers to head to.

Seward said he had wanted to avoid Vicki McAuley unnecessary distress. "A search response had already been decided," he said.

Besides having to work out where to look, RCC staff lost 25 minutes earlier in the evening, dealing with a North Island plane crash.

Seward told the inquest that prior to departure, voyagers should supply the RCC with detailed information that would help searchers in the event of a rescue mission.

There was confusion during the search about what safety gear McAuley was carrying and what call sign he planned to use. Searchers estimated he would last 12 to 15 hours in the water, at best.

Hewitson said the RCC did make a huge effort. The inquest had highlighted issues the RCC was dealing with behind the scenes.

Meanwhile, the sea kayaking fraternity had introduced new safety measures in the wake of the McAuley tragedy.

Kayak adventurer Paul Caffyn, who lives near Greymouth, said a protocol had been established in conjunction with the RCC for VHF radio call signs, contact information and voyage plans.

Caffyn has recommended emergency gear, including phones, beacons and flares, be carried on a paddler's life vest. Or they could be carried in a "bail out" bag, attached to a paddler's waist or wrist.

Coroner Trevor Savage hoped to release his findings before the end of the month.

- © Fairfax NZ News