Wave claimed Te Awamutu teenager Jack Macnicol while fishing off rocks near Raglan

Monday, 19 November 2018

Jack Macnicol was last seen in the water off Ruapuke Rock.

He stood there in jeans and a t-shirt casting his line off the rocks on the sunny Saturday alongside family members including a brother.

But in a moment, Jack Macnicol was gone.

The search for Macnicol at Papanui Point continued on Monday.

A wave crashed onto a spot known as Ruapuke Rock and pulled him into the turbulent sea.

Those with him were left desperate to find a way to help the Te Awamutu lad.

Sergeant Vince Ranger of Waikato police search and rescue speaks about the disappearance of Jack Macnicol.

They scrambled further up the rock to reach some 20-litre containers tied together to use as a floatation device.

The teenager was fishing at Papanui Point with family when we was swept away by a wave.

But by the time they returned there was no sign of the 17 year old.

'You only have to go out there and look at that rock to realise that once you're in the water it is difficult to climb back out again,' Waikato police search and rescue Sergeant Vince Ranger said on Monday.

Jack had travelled to Papanui Point on the open coast a 40 minute drive south of Raglan to fish.

He was with a group of four, Ranger said, who spent the day fishing before tragedy struck around 1.30pm.

Preliminary inquiries suggest Jack was washed off the rock by a wave.

Seas at the time were glassy and 'relatively calm' with a reasonable swell rolling in.

'As the swells approach the rock they build up to significant waves as they hit the rock.'

By the time Ranger arrived at the scene within an hour of Jack's disappearance, the swells approaching the rocks were metres high.

'It's tragic.'

As the search entered its third day on Monday, Ranger said efforts were now dictated by the tides.

Land searches were being undertaken outside of high tide - during outgoing and low tides along the shoreline either side of Ruapuke Rock, he said.

'Every day we will be reassessing it depending on tides and the weather that is coming in.'

The weather will impact on the use of any aerial and water searches, he said.

For the last two days the police Eagle helicopter and coastal air patrol, along with surf life savers and Coastguard have been out searching.

'We've covered the sea pretty well so now we're concentrating on the shoreline around Papanui Point.'

Family and friends had also been helping in the search, gathering at the beach to scour the shoreline on Sunday in hope the ocean would return their loved one to them.

'They are just as any family would be and pretty distraught. They will continue searching as a group as well.'