In 1962 the still joint-crewed RNZN/RAN/RN "Royalist" suffered permanent damage in rough weather in the Tasman Sea,the keel twisted out of alignment. It would never be possible again for cruisers, gun fire directors to determine the cruisers datum, centre line, necessary for accurate targetingThe back of the cruiser was technically broken, and it could have been assessed as a constructive loss, uneconomic to repair, and scrapped then. The RAN, Captain was running at excess speed, into a head sea, determined to make Auckland for a Rugby Union test between the Wallabies and All Blacks at Eden Park. The cruiser operated with the British Far East Fleet, in three tours of duty in 1963, 1964 & 1965, during the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation the crews being belatedly awarded General Service Medals for the 1963–64 tours and Operational Service Medals for active service in combat zones in 1956, 1957–1958 and 1965, finally recognised by the New Zealand government in 2000. From mid-1963, reports by the captain of "Royalist" noted that one of the two Mk 6/275 HALADCTs were often unserviceable, as often one or two STAAGs were, while the ship's hull and lower structure was marginal requiring constant work and frequent painting, requiring an extra Asian workforce due to the construction of the cruiser out of "low quality wartime steel", and the ship's below-deck humidity and constant temperature at a minimum of . The ship's modernisation had provided only for a lifespan of six years, so these conditions were expected. Effective modernisation of the ship after acquisition from the Royal Navy only amounted to several ECM/ESM updates.