Wellington Harbour News

Two shipping containers have been found washed up in Wellington's CentrePort as a result of strong winds gusting up to 120km/h last night. "Strong northwesterly winds blew at least two shipping containers into Wellington harbour late on Tuesday night. One of the 40-foot containers blew off Wellington's wharf and wound up on Oriental Parade beach. It will be left there until tomorrow," Harbour Master Mike Pryce says. The second container, which is halfway submerged by the Thorndon container terminal, will be recovered with a crane today. Continuing high winds and tidal conditions are hampering the recovery operation which has started. An empty 40-foot shipping container weighs almost four tonnes.

Failure to follow Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) safety guidelines led to court sentence following death in boating accident. The sentencing of Timaru man David Lloyd Batchelor following the death of a friend in a boating accident highlights the tragic consequences of not following basic Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) safety guidelines, MNZ Manager, Maritime Investigations, Steve van der Splinter says. Appearing in Timaru District Court, Mr Batchelor was fined $500 and ordered to pay $2,500 in reparations to the widow of Frank Sanders, 59, who died on Lake Alexandrina in April 2011 after Mr Batchelor’s 4.7m dinghy, carrying him and three other men, capsized. Mr Batchelor was convicted in June of permitting a boat to be operated in a manner causing unnecessary risk to the occupants.

The Maritime Safety Authority is investigating an incident following a problem with the Aratere ferry’s automatic navigation system at the entrance to Tory Channel at 5.20pm yesterday. MSA General Manager Operations John Mansell says the MSA is very concerned there was potential for a serious grounding. “Fortunately, the Master was able to alter the course manually and bring her back on track. “The MSA is carrying out an urgent investigation. We have also imposed conditions that require the Aratere to be manually steered through the Tory Channel and in Wellington Harbour until the cause of the problem has been identified,” he said.