Whale sinks yacht in South Pacific, sailors rescued alive 18 hours later

A sperm whale cracked the hull of a yacht sailing in the remote waters of the South Pacific, forcing four sailors to fight day and night to survive on the high seas.

Crew members of the 52-foot Tai Tam told AFP on Thursday of their weekend encounter with a group of sperm whales 250 nautical miles north of the small Norfolk Island.

“There was a sort of thud. The whole boat was pushed sideways,” said Australian Jemma Cooper, who was thrown from the steering wheel by the force of the impact.

Not knowing at first what had happened, she noticed a brown discoloration in the water and a sperm whale.

“We looked on the port side, and there were six to eight, a pod, of whales. So it became clear that this was it,” she told AFP.

Her husband Jeremy Cooper said he was sleeping under the bridge when the impact woke him.

“It was obvious it was very serious,” he said.

“The entire steering gear was broken on the starboard side, and there was a significant amount of water coming in,” Jeremy told AFP.

At 1 p.m. New Zealand time on Saturday – about 30 minutes after the whale collision – they activated a rescue beacon.

“We declared a full Mayday,” said New Zealand crew member Terry Hetherington, adding that they spent the next few hours clearing out as much water as possible.

“Terrible ending”

The Royal New Zealand Air Force sent a P-8A Poseidon patrol aircraft to the area to establish radio communications and coordinate the rescue, the military said in a news release, which included footage of the rescue.

French crew member Martin Jaffre said the collision with the whale left several gashes in the hull and cracked the fiberglass structure, as well as the steering.

“We could no longer steer the boat, and a boat without a helm quickly becomes a problem,” he explains to AFP.

Jaffre fought to slow the incoming water with whatever he had on hand, including expanding foam, and swam under the boat to inspect the hull, his teammates said.

The sailors tried to stay on board as long as possible, struggling to keep the engine from fouling and bailing out by hand.

Late that night, they abandoned ship and were transferred to a life raft in calm seas and under a full moon.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, they cut the yacht’s tether, fearing it would drag them down. Soon after, he slipped beneath the waves.

A 470-foot container ship, the MV Sofrana Surville, rescued the sailors at 6 a.m. Sunday, the New Zealand military said, about 18 hours after their encounter with the sperm whale.

Even the rescue was scary as the giant ship approached their small life raft, Jeremy Cooper recalled.

But within half an hour, they had climbed a ladder to join their rescuers, have a cup of coffee and chat with the captain, he said, spoiling the end of their Pacific vacation trip.

“It was wonderful, wonderful, and just a terrible, terrible ending – but fortunately no loss of life.”

Rescue Coordination Center Operations Manager Mike Clulow praised the efforts of the rescue team and the yacht’s crew.

“This was a well-coordinated and executed rescue,” Clulow said. “The yacht’s crew did everything right, and it was a shame to hit a whale in open water. They were well prepared and the early activation of their EPIRB (Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon) was key to getting them to safety. It’s a great reminder that being prepared when going out to sea can save your life.”

Adult male sperm whales measure between 50 and 60 feet. They are considered a “vulnerable” species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a nonprofit organization. Sperm whales breed once every five to seven years and have experienced a significant population decline. The species is threatened by noise pollution, plastic consumption and ship strikes.

The incident in New Zealand marks at least the second time in less than two months that a whale has sunk a boat. In July, a whale surfacing for air collided with a New Jersey fire boat, sink the ship with firefighters on board. A person on a nearby personal watercraft and a boater helped rescue firefighters from the water.