Trapped family's rescue wins trio top award

Three young women have been named surf lifesaving rescuers of the year after saving a drowning family trapped beneath a fishing boat.

The bravery of Bay of Plenty 20-year-olds Lilah Foote, Rebekah Gee and Briar Macken in the January 11 rescue was "nothing short of heroic," said Life Saving NZ chief executive Geoff Barry.

The trio went to the rescue when Kawerau mother Leanne Charleston and her children Amie, 15, Cera, eight, and Eythn, six, were trapped in the cabin of a 6m fishing boat after it flipped in a 1.5m swell near the treacherous bar at the mouth of the Pukehina estuary near Tauranga.

When Foote saw the vessel twist, turn sideways and roll, she says she saw "dead bodies" in her head.

The four were trapped in an air pocket in the cabin for 20 minutes.

Charleston said when her head bobbed out of the water she saw her three children through the gloom, all wearing lifejackets.

"I thought, `Oh my God I'm going to die and I'm going to take my kids with me'."

Her partner Pip Smit, who owned the boat, had been thrown clear.

Charleston says when Smit saw three female lifeguards heading to help with their rescue boat, he thought "Oh my God, what the hell are three girls going to do to help me get them out?"

Gee and Foote dived under the boat but churning surf and sand made it impossible to see. They felt around the fishing vessel for four bodies.

"We were already thinking about how we were going to resuscitate four people between the two of us, when all of a sudden we heard the little boy blowing the whistle on his lifejacket," Foote said.

Until then, they had thought everyone was dead.

Large fish bins were blocking the cabin door and the anchor had fallen, keeping the boat upturned.

When Gee cut the anchor, Foote and Smit turned the boat over, hauling the terrified family free.

Foote played down their heroism, saying they were trained to rescue. "We've always watched that bar carefully but never had to do it," said Foote. "When it did happen, everything just kind of clicked."

- © Fairfax NZ News