Allan Hall knew it could have been worse as he sat looking at his semi-submerged 13m launch Tight Five at Mangonui's Mill Bay.
"I thought she was a goner," he said, after the boat had come close to sinking at its mooring on Monday evening.
Air in the bow kept it partially afloat, but getting it to the relative safety of the jetty took some doing.
Far North Radio and Sea Rescue ferried a Mangonui Fire Brigade crew out to the mooring, with an hour and a half of pumping in the dark and rain lifting the boat enough to tow it closer to shore.
A fire appliance was used to pull it into the jetty when the tide rose, but almost 24 hours later the boat was still sitting with its stern on the bottom.
Meanwhile the mystery as to what caused Tight Five to take on water was solved when Tuesday night's low tide revealed a hole in the hull, just above the water line, presumably the result of a collision with another boat.
A temporary patch was applied so it could be pumped out, and it was removed from the water at midnight.
Mr Hall was still unsure yesterday whether the boat was repairable, a question that he expected to be decided by his insurer.
The launch, built in 1979, had almost become part of the family, he added. His grandchildren had been upset to hear what had happened.
"It's just so sad to see," he said.