Two sailors rescued from yacht 210 NM from Sydney en route from NZ

by Sail-World.com/NZ on 9 Mar 2017 New South Wales Police have advised that two sailors have rescued from a 40ft yacht 210nm off the New South Wales coast on Tuesday.

In a joint operation between the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and NSW Police two people have been rescued from a yacht in distress about 210 nautical miles (NM) east north east of Sydney.

AMSA has been in regular contact with the yacht since March 4 after they informed the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) of a broken rudder. The two crew, an Irish and French national, were on board the 40-foot yacht that was travelling from New Zealand to Australia.

About 3pm yesterday (Tuesday 7 March 2017), the yacht, affected by high winds and heavy swell, activated its EPIRB (emergency position-indicating radio beacon).

Rescue 660, one of AMSA’s dedicated search and rescue Challenger 604 jets, was tasked to drop additional communications equipment to the yacht. The equipment was dropped successfully by Rescue 660, however the equipment was unable to be recovered by the yacht due to the treacherous conditions. Rescue 660 remained on scene to relay communications from the yacht to AMSA.

AMSA issued a broadcast to shipping in the area requesting assistance which was answered by the container ship ANL Elanora.

AMSA also requested NSW Police assistance and the NSW Police Nemesis vessel was launched at 7pm last night (Tuesday 7 March 2017), with seven officers from the Marine Area Command aboard.

In six-metre swells and gale-force southerly winds, the Nemesis reached the yacht at 8.30am this morning (Wednesday 8 March 2017).

Both the man and the woman were successfully transferred to the Nemesis with the assistance of the ANL Elanora and are reported to be uninjured.

The Nemesis has now returned to Sydney.

In a report published by the ABC, the two sailors were identified as 55-year-old Irish national Nick Dwyer and 44-year-old French national Barbara Heftman who had been sailing the world for seven years on their yacht.

Mr Dwyer said the pair feared for their lives during the ordeal.

'We weren't sure whether we were going to be rolled again and each time a wave hit, we thought 'is the one that's going to take us?'' he said.

'We encountered enormous seas, waves the size of buildings coming at you constantly, winds that you can't stand up in, seas breaking, whiteness everywhere.'

The pair had sailed three days without a rudder but huge waves and gale-force winds forced them to activate an emergency radio beacon on Tuesday.

'It wasn't really until the low hit us and we got capsized that we felt we really couldn't survive this one without assistance,' Mr Dwyer said.

The experienced sailors plan to stay in Sydney on a three-month visa, figuring out their next step, while the boat is retrieved, the ABC reported.

'It was our our home and it might be again, we don't know,' Mr Dwyer said.