A Christmas Eve boating trip that left two young women seriously injured has ended in a court sentencing, after a day on the water near the Alderman Islands descended into near-tragedy through alcohol and negligence at the helm.
Travis Whiteman, the skipper of the vessel, appeared in the Thames District Court on Wednesday and was sentenced and fined for careless operation of a vessel under the Maritime Transport Act 1994.
On 24 December 2022, Whiteman and three friends crossed the Tairua Bar and headed out toward the Alderman Islands. The group, all aged between 21 and 23, had brought food and alcohol on board and consumed both during the day. At some point the two women went for a swim. Whiteman, who Judge Arthur Tompkins found had clearly been drinking, put the vessel into reverse without first establishing where the women were. The propeller of the outboard motor struck both of them.
A police breath test conducted on Whiteman three hours after the incident recorded more than 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath, which is the legal limit for driving on New Zealand roads. There is no equivalent alcohol limit for skippers operating vessels at sea in New Zealand.
"During the day, he had drunk a reasonable amount of alcohol. That seems extraordinary," Judge Tompkins said.
Both women sustained serious injuries requiring hospitalisation, and both have been granted name suppression. In her victim impact statement, one described believing she would bleed to death during the roughly one-hour trip back to shore. "I find myself wondering how differently things might have gone if help had been called straight away," she said. She also referred to three permanent scars and continuing psychological effects that had led her to avoid water-based activities.
The second victim described visible scarring alongside physical, emotional and practical consequences from her injuries. "Both of us were terrified," she said. She further alleged that the skipper disposed of alcohol bottles from the vessel at a time when he should have been contacting emergency services.
Whiteman's lawyer, Mr Wood, disputed that account. He argued that ambulances had been waiting on the mainland when the vessel arrived back, indicating an emergency call had been made. He also questioned the severity of the victims' injuries and noted that they had themselves been drinking.
Judge Tompkins was direct in his response. "That's coming very close to victim-blaming, Mr Wood," he said.
Both victims stated that Whiteman had shown no remorse and had not accepted responsibility. He entered a guilty plea on the morning his judge-alone trial was due to begin. Judge Tompkins was clear in assigning culpability: Whiteman was the only person responsible for skippering the vessel. He fined Whiteman $3,600 on each of the two charges and ordered reparations of $4,000 to each victim.
The prosecution was brought by Waikato Regional Council. Compliance manager Patrick Lynch attended the sentencing and reflected on what the occasion should have been. "This should have been a fantastic day for those four young people, and it was near tragedy, and completely avoidable," he said.
Lynch said he hoped the case would serve as a warning to other skippers. "We want to send a very specific deterrence to this skipper about his behaviour on this occasion, and we want to send a general deterrence to other skippers who are thinking about drinking and skippering," he said.
Outside the court, the mother of one of the victims said her daughter would not have gone on the boat had she known the skipper would be drinking. She called for legislative change to address what she saw as a clear gap in New Zealand maritime law. "Boys, drinking, and big boats don't mix, it should be like cars, no drinking," she said. "We need to change legislation to make sure that happens, boating and drinking shouldn't occur."
Lynch agreed that reform was long overdue. Recreational harbourmaster for Waikato, Hayden Coburn, also attended the sentencing and made his position plain, regardless of the current absence of a legal alcohol limit for skippers.
"There's to be no drinking by the person responsible for the vessel and for the crew and their safety on board the vessel," Coburn said. He added that the standard should apply across the full duration of any planned trip. "That's the preparation before they go out, that's during the boating, and that's the follow up."
For the two women at the centre of the case, recovery is ongoing. "The girls are recovering but obviously the psychological scars take longer than the physical scars," their mother said.
