The two crew aboard their Koopmans 48 Stormvogel had a nasy shock when they discovered a leak around the centreboard of the vessel. Three or four bolts appeared to have broken and the centreboard was moving freely, with a flow rate estimated at around 20ltrs per minute.

The frantic crew called on two other boats they’d been travelling with to help, who in turn contacted rescue services.

Stormvogel’s crew were able to stabilise the moving centerboard with a piece of wood and later activated their EPIRB after speaking to the Australian and Norwegian rescue services. After an hour, the skipper was able to control the ingress of water by mounting a new electrical pump in the bilge and were later informed by rescue services that a cargo ship was on its way.

After discussing how to save the yacht, the skippers settled on the idea of using cement to stabilise the centerboard. Luckily for the crews, the container ship that came to their aid, just happened to have cement on board and was able to transfer the product via dinghy to the yacht.

Other galleries you may be interested in: Sailing community devastated by Hurricane Odile

With the situation now under control and after a bit of DIY, all three vessels were able to make the final push to Cairns and arrived safely in port on 28 June.

Other galleries you may be interested in: Indonesian cargo ship transformed into luxury yacht

Images: Pendana blog