Youth Believed Drowned

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 1

Youth Believed Drowned

A youth is believed to have drowned when the 26ft fishing boat Micky foundered three or four miles north of Motunau Beach yesterday.

The youth, Leslie Daniel Beams, aged 20, of Riccarton, left Motunau Beach in the Micky at 7 a.m. yesterday on a fishing trip. He was alone.

The Micky, powered by a diesel engine, was due to return on the tide at 2.30 p.m., but about that time local fishermen found a mast and cabin timbers which were identified as coming from the Micky by the former owner, William Pooley. The wreckage was discovered about 600 yards offshore near a rock.

At 6.17 p.m. the Christchurch Central police station was informed that the boat w-as missing and that wreckage had been found. A search was initiated by the Search and Rescue Organisation. Search By Plane

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Devon aircraft took off from Wigram and was in the air for more than an hour, but no trace of the boat was found. Constable H. Hollander, of Cheviot, went to Motunau Beach, and after making an appraisal of the situation recommended that no full-scale coast search be made until dawn, because it was very cloudy and dark and it would be difficult to see anything. A search party will leave the Christchurch Central Police Station at 4 a.m. today. It will include deepwater skin-divers, who will search around the rock on which the boat is believed to have foundered. The water

is 15 fathoms deep at this point. A strong north-west wind was blowing off the shore yesterday, and the conditions were such that the fishing boats were unable to pick up all the wreckage. The Micky was painted red, blue, and white, and its registered number was LNI6S. It carried two life-jackets. Two similar life-jackets were found among the wreckage. It had no dinghy.