A Kiwi witness has described the chaotic moment a boat with three people aboard capsized during the 9pm New Years Eve fireworks display in Sydney.
Kiwi Chris Hoffmann told 1News he was seeing in the New Year with his wife, 20-month-old baby and about four others on a friends' boat in Sydney Harbour when the drama unfolded.
"We're watching the fireworks in the harbour and there's boats everywhere... it's crazy. And then someone calls out 'a boat's just capsized' and we all sort of turn and look."
He said the small, approximately 5.5m-long boat had flipped "bow over stern", throwing all three occupants into the water.
"We could sort of see in the dark one guy clambering up onto the upturned boat, and then we called out 'are you guys OK?' and they started calling for help, screaming and blowing their whistles."
Hoffmann said all three people were wearing life jackets, and he and his friends pulled up alongside their overturned boat to begin hauling the three people aboard.
He said two older passengers were "pretty shaken up", especially the woman.
"She said she's got lung problems, so she was really sort of struggling you know puffing and panting and struggled to get on board."
He said the man managed to keep hold of his beer in a stubby-holder for the entire ordeal.
"He was very proud of that," he laughed. "I think he had lost his wallet, and someone lost a set of car keys as well.
"By that stage, other people in our boat were on the phone and marine radio too. And then we had three different police boats all sort of pull up on top of us... it was quite full on," he said.
Hoffmann said the life jackets likely saved their lives.
"It would've been a different outcome, especially [for] the older lady with the lung problems, the life jacket saved her life."
"Everyone else was looking in the other direction at the fireworks, it just happened to be where we were and the fact that they went over so violently, it wasn't like a graceful sort of like, you know, slowly sinking or anything.”
He said they were in the "right place at the right time" and was very glad they could help out.
In a statement to 1News, a NSW police spokesperson said Marine Area Commad receievd a report a small tinny had capsized off Woolwich Marina just after 9pm on December 31.
"Officers attended and found the vessel had sunk. The three people on board at the time had been rescued by a passing vessel," the spokesperson said.
No injuries were reported, and police dropped the group at a nearby boat ramp.
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