Four sailors rescued after yacht sinks in South Pacific

Four sailors were rescued in the South Pacific after their yacht, Tai Tam, was damaged in an impact they attributed to a sperm whale and later sank, according to accounts from the crew and New Zealand military. The container ship MV Sofrana Surville picked up all four from a life raft about 18 hours after the encounter, the military said. The 16-meter yacht was sailing about 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island when a loud impact shoved it sideways, crew member Jemma Cooper said. She reported seeing six to eight sperm whales nearby and said the crew concluded one had struck the boat. The supplied accounts do not provide independent confirmation of what caused the impact. Cooper’s husband, Jeremy, said the blow smashed the steering gear and allowed significant water into the yacht. Crew member Martin Jaffre described gashes in the hull and cracked fiberglass. The sailors could no longer steer the vessel and tried to control the flooding by bailing water by hand. Jaffre also used expansion foam and swam beneath the yacht to inspect its hull, according to the crew’s account.