Taxpayers are out more than $318,000 thanks to a hoaxer who issued a very real-sounding maritime distress call, Coast Guard officials said yesterday.

“We have three deceased and nine injured. We have had an explosion on board,” said a man claiming to be captain of a yacht named Blind Date whose last position he gave as being 17 1/2 miles east of Sandy Hook, NJ.

He put out his SOS — which officials later determined was made from shore — at 4:20 p.m. Monday.

The Coast Guard dispatched a jet from Cape Cod, and sent four helicopters and two boat crews in the search.

Twenty NYPD officers aboard three helicopters and five boats also took up the search, as did a Nassau County helicopter and marine unit, as well as FDNY and New Jersey State Police boats.

In all, more than 200 rescuers were involved, said Capt. Gregory Hitchen, a New York-area Coast Guard commander.

The $318,000 estimate does not include the cost of ambulance crews on shore.