{"id":612962,"date":"2026-09-27T02:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T02:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612962\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T02:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T02:10:10","slug":"maritime-nz-co-ordinates-rescue-of-four-sailors-after-yacht-strikes-whale-in-south-pacific-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612962\/","title":{"rendered":"Maritime NZ co-ordinates rescue of four sailors after yacht strikes whale in South Pacific Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe yacht was experiencing seas of up to 2m and a Royal New Zealand Airforce P-8A Poseidon was tasked with assisting,\u201d Clulow said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cSeveral vessels were in the area and diverted to assist.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Maritime New Zealand has co-ordinated the rescue of four sailors after their Australian-flagged yacht was struck by a whale and began to take on water. Photo \/ New Zealand Defence Force\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Maritime New Zealand has co-ordinated the rescue of four sailors after their Australian-flagged yacht was struck by a whale and began to take on water. Photo \/ New Zealand Defence Force<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">Clulow said the four sailors on the vessel had to abandon ship and spent several hours in a life raft before being rescued at about 6am on Sunday morning by the crew of the MV Sofrana Surville, a 143m cargo vessel which was first on the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">He said the rescue was \u201cwell co-ordinated and executed\u201d, and thanked the RCCNZ\u2019s partners at the New Zealand Defence Force, Australia\u2019s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre and New Caledonia\u2019s Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre for their assistance and support.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">He also extended gratitude to both the crews on the Malta-flagged MV Sofrana Surville and a private vessel which aided in the operation.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The sailors spent several hours in a life raft before being rescued. Photo \/ New Zealand Defence Force\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The sailors spent several hours in a life raft before being rescued. Photo \/ New Zealand Defence Force<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">All four sailors were now safely on board the MV Sofrana Surville and will be taken to the nearest port to disembark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe crew of the yacht did all the right things, and it was unfortunate to have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/kaikoura-boat-tragedy-whale-strike-toxic-fumes-led-to-five-deaths-report-says\/GEO5UREO6RCAPJHM6ERQCTDA2Y\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/kaikoura-boat-tragedy-whale-strike-toxic-fumes-led-to-five-deaths-report-says\/GEO5UREO6RCAPJHM6ERQCTDA2Y\/\">struck a whale<\/a> in open water,\u201d Clulow said.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"The 143m-long Malta-flagged cargo ship MV Sofrana Surville rescued the group of sailors at about 6am. Photo \/ New Zealand Defence Force\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>The 143m-long Malta-flagged cargo ship MV Sofrana Surville rescued the group of sailors at about 6am. Photo \/ New Zealand Defence Force<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThey were well prepared and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/epirb-sales-increase-after-enchanter-tragedy-documentary\/FHCAM4QRJ3MTJAYD3THPNHDJNY\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/epirb-sales-increase-after-enchanter-tragedy-documentary\/FHCAM4QRJ3MTJAYD3THPNHDJNY\/\">the early activation of their EPIRB<\/a> was key to helping get them to safety.<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt is an excellent reminder that being prepared when going to sea can save your life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"zEEGoQobVQRR\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered to your inbox every weekday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe yacht was experiencing seas of up to 2m and a Royal New Zealand Airforce P-8A Poseidon was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,11164,51166,301879,3011,71,78,11595,111,43,139,69,11599,1118,5493,13572,8527,41137,312,78054,1240,19063,20705,165,25535,26010,16506,80],"class_list":["post-612962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-began","tag-coordinated","tag-coordinates","tag-four","tag-from","tag-in","tag-maritime","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-ocean","tag-of","tag-open","tag-pacific","tag-rescue","tag-sailors","tag-says","tag-sink","tag-south","tag-strikes","tag-struck","tag-their","tag-waters","tag-whale","tag-yacht","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}