Four sailors are safe on board a cargo ship after hours in a life raft in the open Pacific, when their Australian yacht struck a whale and sank about 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island on Saturday.
The rescue was coordinated from Lower Hutt by Maritime New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre, which said the alarm came through the yacht’s emergency beacon early on Saturday afternoon. A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon flew to the scene, and a 143-metre cargo ship picked the crew up from their life raft at about 6am on Sunday.
“At approximately 1pm Saturday New Zealand time RCCNZ received an alert from an EPIRB from the 51ft Australian yacht Tai Tam. It was taking on water and began sinking after reporting it had struck a whale,” Rescue Coordination Centre operations manager Mike Clulow said in a Maritime New Zealand statement released on Sunday.
An EPIRB, or emergency position indicating radio beacon, is a distress beacon that sends a satellite signal with a vessel’s identity and position once it is switched on.
The Tai Tam is a 15.5-metre Australian-flagged yacht. At the time of the alert it was about 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island and about 185 nautical miles southeast of Nouméa in New Caledonia, Newstalk ZB reported.
“The yacht was experiencing seas of up to 2m, and a Royal New Zealand Airforce P-8A Poseidon was tasked with assisting. Several vessels were in the area and diverted to assist,” Clulow said.
The yacht could not be saved, and the four people on board took to their life raft as ships in the area changed course towards them.
“The four sailors on the vessel had to abandon ship and spent several hours in a life raft before being rescued around 6am this morning by the crew of the MV SOFRANA SURVILLE, a 143m cargo vessel who was first on the scene,” Clulow said.
The Sofrana Surville is a Malta-flagged cargo ship. Maritime New Zealand said the crew were safe on board and were being taken to the nearest port to go ashore. It has not said which port that will be, and the names of the four sailors have not been released.
The rescue drew on help from three countries. Clulow thanked the New Zealand Defence Force, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Australia and the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Nouméa, along with the ship’s crew and the crew of a private sailing boat that also took part.
“This was a well-coordinated and executed rescue, and I’d like to thank our partners at the New Zealand Defence Force for their assistance, along with the assistance of JRCC Australia and MRCC Noumea who provided support. Our thanks also extend to crew of the MV SOFRANA SURVILLE and a private sailing vessel who effected the rescue,” he said.
The crew’s own preparation made the difference, according to Clulow. The yacht was lost to a whale strike, but the sailors had a working beacon and a life raft, and they set the beacon off early.
“The crew of the yacht did all the right things, and it was unfortunate to have struck a whale in open water. They were well prepared and the early activation of their EPIRB was key to helping get them to safety. It is an excellent reminder that being prepared when going to sea can save your life,” he said.
New Zealand’s search and rescue region is one of the largest on Earth. It runs from the South Pole north to the edge of the region managed from Honolulu, and takes in Norfolk Island, Tonga, Samoa and the Cook Islands. The Rescue Coordination Centre, based in Lower Hutt, runs the larger maritime and aviation searches across that area, calling on the Coastguard, helicopter operators, merchant ships and the Defence Force as needed. In this case its counterparts in Australia and New Caledonia also supported the operation.
The aircraft sent on Saturday was one of the Air Force’s four Boeing P-8A Poseidons, flown by No. 5 Squadron from RNZAF Base Ohakea in Manawatū. The Poseidons replaced the old P-3K2 Orions, and the fourth and final aircraft arrived at Ohakea in July 2023. Long-range maritime search is one of their main jobs, as they can cover great distances quickly and search wide areas of ocean from the air.
Collisions between yachts and whales are uncommon, but they do happen, and a heavy animal hitting a hull or rudder at speed can do damage that a small crew cannot fix at sea. Spring is also a busy time for whales in the southwest Pacific, as humpbacks move between their tropical breeding grounds and the Southern Ocean. Earlier this month a southern right whale and calf were seen heading south past Auckland.
Rescue services in New Zealand have long pressed the point that Clulow made on Sunday. A 406 MHz distress beacon only helps if it is on board, working and registered, so that the rescue centre can see at once who owns it, which vessel it belongs to and who to call. Registration with the Rescue Coordination Centre is free and can be done through beacons.org.nz.
Offshore sailing has had other close calls this year. In June a solo trans-Tasman sailor survived a night bailing his flooding yacht off the far north of the North Island.
For the four sailors from the Tai Tam, hours adrift in a life raft ended with a cargo ship alongside at dawn. Their yacht is gone, but everyone on board is alive, and the people who ran the rescue say that is down to the preparation they did before they ever left port.
Do you sail offshore, and what safety gear do you never leave without? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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