A Kaipara Harbour captain is criticising the skipper of the boat that capsized in the Kaipara Harbour.
The boat, reported to be the Francie, a 12m steel launch used for fishing charters, got into trouble while trying to cross the bar.
At least seven were killed when it capsized, including the vessel's skipper, Bill McNatty. One person remains missing.
Tony Wallace owns charter boat the Kaipara Cat, and says conditions on Saturday were dangerous.
"It was alright earlier on, but as the day progressed the wind came up and the tide changed and it just got worse and worse all day, so yeah from about three o'clock onwards we were starting to head back in anyway," he says.
Mr McNatty's choice to head over the bar was "completely the wrong decision," he believes.
"He should not have crossed the bar. The forecast said 35 [km/h] in the afternoon and a swell of up to five metres," Mr Wallace says.
"The weather conditions were just not suitable to do that. I heard the Francie call in the morning to say that he was going over and I just thought to myself then, well, it's not for me, I wouldn't do that."
According to the MetService, there were one-metre swells and wind gusts of up to 50km/h in the harbour in the afternoon.
"But I don't cross the bar anyway, I've always considered the bar beyond the realms of safety," Mr Wallace says.
"There's a lot of people cross it and a lot of people don't have a problem, but it's not for me. I seem to do all right inside the harbour without actually putting myself or my passengers or my boat at risk."
Search teams battled waves up to four metres as they rescued three people and recovered five bodies from the harbour, north of Auckland, on Saturday evening.
"The Kaipara Bar's been an accident waiting to happen for a long, long time," Mr Wallace says.
"There's a lot of people that cross it and there's a lot of people that don't really have the experience - I think you'd be pushing to talk to anybody who hasn't had a - shall we say - a close call or a bit of an oops on the bar, that sort of makes you realise it is a very dangerous place."
Coastguard rescue vessel skipper Iain Guilford described the sea conditions as "trying", with huge standing waves in excess of four metres.
Mr Guilford says coastguard training was brought to the fore in challenging circumstances.
"It's never easy being part of an incident where you can't bring people home to their families. Our thoughts are with everyone involved."
The process of identifying the victims and advising the next of kin is currently underway.
Newshub.
