Five people died after the Enchanter caosized in 2022.
Photo: Supplied / Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust

A deckhand on the ill-fated fishing boat Enchanter has revealed for the first time what happened in the hours after the vessel capsized – and his desperate efforts to save some of the passengers.

The Enchanter was returning from a five-day, “once-in-a-lifetime” fishing trip to the Three Kings Islands – about 60km north of Cape Reinga – on 20 March 2022, when it was struck by a massive wave near North Cape.

The impact capsized the vessel and tore off the cabin and flybridge, throwing the two crew and eight passengers into the water.

Skipper Lance Goodhew and deckhand Kobe O’Neill survived along with three passengers, but five others died – either during the capsize or in the hours as they awaited rescue.

Goodhew was later charged by Maritime New Zealand with breaching his duties as a worker on the vessel and, in doing so, putting individuals at risk of serious injury or death.

His trial started in the Whangārei District Court on Monday.

The first witness to be called was O’Neill, who was 20 at the time of the tragedy.

He was responsible for cooking and preparing fishing gear on board the Enchanter.

He was cross-examined about the sea conditions at the time, how decisions were made aboard the vessel, and what happened after the wave struck.

‘The water came in quickly’

O’Neil said the boat was in the vicinity of Murimotu Island, off North Cape, and he was preparing dinner for the passengers when the wave hit from the port side.

“We went down into the trough of the wave, the windows hit the water and they were the first thing to blow out. Then water came in quickly after, and the whole boat turned upside down.”

O’Neill said it took him about two minutes to get out of the wreckage.

Lance Goodhew.
Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf

“I broke the surface of the water and saw all the fish that we’d kept in the hold floating around me. I think that’s probably the reason I didn’t freak out and go into shock. Seeing the fish and realising what eats fish like that, I came to pretty quick.”

Initially, O’Neill, along with passengers Shay Ward and Jayde Cook, tried to climb onto the upside-down hull.

“The boat was going up and down and out of the water so it was quite hard to get on, and hard to stay on once we were on. It was really slippery up on top with all the anti-foul,” he said.

“It was at that point I turned around and saw Mike Lovett floating face-down in the water, so I dove in and grabbed him. There was a life ring floating nearby and I put him on top of it. There was a line from the marlin lures in the water, I grabbed onto it, it was still connected to the boat, so Shay tried to pull that in, but with no luck.”

O’Neill then swam the unresponsive Lovett to the upturned hull, where the men tried in vain to haul him on top.

At that point O’Neill saw the skipper and passenger Ben Stinson climbing onto the cabin roof that had been torn off the boat.

“So I started swimming in that direction and came across another life ring, and put that under Mike to try to keep his head out of the water. In the meantime I could see Mark Sanders holding onto a piece of debris in the water – I was trying to yell at him to come with me and get onto the platform, the roof of the boat, but he wasn’t very with it. I swam Mike over to the platform. It took a while but we got him up on top,” he said.

“By that time the sun had just gone down, it was starting to get dark and we were losing sight of people. The current dragged everyone away. Then it was dark. We tried our best to save Mike but to be honest I think he was already gone from the impact.”

O’Neill said about 15 or 20 minutes had passed when the Enchanter’s Epirb [distress beacon], which had broken free from the boat but failed to activate automatically, floated past Goodhew.

It was a moment Maritime New Zealand prosecutor Sam McMullan described as “an act of God”.

O’Neill said the skipper grabbed it and threw it to him.

“I’m not sure if it was meant to be water-activated but it definitely wasn’t going when we got hold of it. It’s one of the hardest things to turn on. No matter how many times I pressed the button, it refused to turn on. It took probably another 10, 15 minutes of playing around with it to get flashing consistently,” he said.

“There was a fender floating nearby that we grabbed as well and tied it onto Mike. We held onto him for a couple of hours. We played a few games to keep our minds off what had happened. I even asked for a pay rise. And then the helicopter came and picked us up.”

O’Neill estimated they had been in the water for 4 ½ hours when help arrived.

When the second chopper arrived – delayed, according to a Transport Accident Investigation Commission report, by a lack of emergency fuel stores in the Far North – the five other passengers were dead.

O’Neill will continue giving evidence on day two of the trial today.

He is likely to be joined by Matt Gentry, skipper of the Florence Nightingale, a fishing boat involved in the rescue mission, passengers Peter Ward and Jayde Cook, and Maritime New Zealand investigator Tracy Phillips.

The judge-alone trial before Judge Philip Rzepecky is expected to take three weeks.