Dramatic Boat Rescue

A cabin yacht was dramatically rescued from near certain destruction when it became jammed under the Gladstone Road bridge during a medium flood in the city's rivers.

Moored in the Taruheru, it started to drift downstream as the waters rose, and by very good fortune became lodged under the bridge when its front anchor rope passed on the opposite side of a pier to that taken by the vessel.

The yacht was towed clear by a front-end loader after a member of the rescue team, Raymond Falkiner, had been lowered on to its deck to attach a wire rope.

The yacht's owner, a sailor, was at sea at the time.

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The yacht jammed under the bridge before rescue operations commenced

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Dangling from a rope above the swirling water, Raymond Falkiner is lowered down to the yacht.