Sailors rescued from raft after hitting a whale pod sinks their yacht

Four people have been rescued after their yacht struck a whale and eventually capsized while sailing between Fiji and New Zealand.

The crew of the Tai Tam were forced to abandon ship and were picked up by a container ship some 250 miles north of Norfolk Island after the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre responded to their distress call.

Skipper, Jeremy Cooper, says he’s lucky to be alive.

“We managed to mitigate it to some extent but the damage was so bad,” he said. “After about half an hour it’s pretty clear that the boat was not going to be recoverable in terms of being able to get it back underway.”