Bay of Plenty harbourmaster Carl Magazinovic is advising the boating public to remain on the lookout for floating debris, following the weekend storm.

Swollen rivers washed logs, branches and trees into the harbour, which may take some days to clear.

Tree debris littered Tauranga harbour following the weekend storm. Photo by Donna Geldenhuys.

'All boaties should be aware of these hazards before heading out on the water, and take extra precautions,” says Carl.

'We've got most of them I hope; there wasn't a lot left yesterday and there was still a few around.”

Tonnes of logs were hauled off the Pilot Bay beach on Sunday by contractors Sea Quest Marine.

The Tauranga Volunteer Coastguard only had a couple of storm calls.

The Coastguard boat, TECT Rescue, pulled a yacht off the jetty at Pane Pane Point, and was called to a report of a yacht sinking in Pilot Bay, says Coastguard operations manager Simon Barker.

The 6m yacht at Pane Pane was being pounded by waves and the water was too shallow at low tide for the harbourmaster's boat says Simon.

'We went over with our boat and just gave him a pull out,” says Simon.

'There was a report that came in of a yacht sinking in Pilot Bay, but I think it was just tied up at the wharf. The wind was blowing so hard it was just heeling over.

'Ours guys went over and checked it out but there was no problem.”

On Monday, the Coastguard was called by a frantic fisherman who anchored against the rules in the main shipping channel off Pilot Bay.

When he attempted to raise anchor because a large ship was heading toward him, he discovered a fishing net had fouled the anchor.

'He was pretty close to getting run over by a ship,” says Simon.

'Our boat was on the water. The guys went over there and cut the fishing net off his anchor. He was lucky the boat was on the water.”