An RNZAF P-8A Poseidon located the four crew of Tai Tam, including a New Zealander, before a container ship picked them up from their liferaft north of Norfolk Island
The Australian-flagged Beneteau Oceanis 51.1 Tai Tam was on its way home from Fiji to Ōpua for the summer, a passage other cruising yachts are now beginning. On Saturday 26 September, about halfway there, it hit a whale roughly 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island and sank. The four on board, two Australians, a New Zealander and a French national, were rescued from their liferaft by a container ship early the next morning.
Melbourne owners Jeremy and Jemma Cooper had sailed the yacht to New Zealand around Easter and kept it at Bay of Islands Marina, then left for a season in Fiji in July. The marina’s boatyard manager, Rhys Dempster, knows the couple well. His team worked with them through the last cruising season on several upgrades and modifications to the yacht.
“We were really on our way to put it back into Ōpua. We were about halfway back, and then just out of the blue a massive collision with a whale,” Jeremy Cooper told TVNZ’s Breakfast.
Jemma Cooper was on the helm, with New Zealander Terry Hetherington and Frenchman Martin Jaffre also in the cockpit.
“Everyone in the cockpit, the two other crew as well, were just knocked sideways, and there was just this wrenching sound, and then no control whatsoever at the helm, completely locked off,” she said.
The crew spent about half an hour assessing the damage before raising the alarm. Maritime NZ’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCCNZ) received an alert from the yacht’s EPIRB at about 1pm NZ time.
“It was taking on water and began sinking after reporting it had struck a whale,” RCCNZ operations manager Mike Clulow said.
The yacht was about 185 nautical miles south-east of Nouméa, in seas of up to 2m. RCCNZ tasked a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon, and several vessels in the area diverted to help. The P-8A crew located the sailors and established two-way radio contact with them and with the ships heading to the scene.
RCCNZ coordinates search and rescue across a region of about 30 million square kilometres, one of the largest in the world. It stretches from the mid-Tasman Sea to halfway to Chile, and from the South Pole almost to the Equator. For this rescue, Australia’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre and New Caledonia’s MRCC Nouméa provided support.
The four had to abandon Tai Tam and spent several hours in their liferaft. The 143m Malta-flagged cargo ship Sofrana Surville was first on scene and picked them up at about 6am on Sunday. A private sailing vessel also assisted. The crew stayed aboard Sofrana Surville to be taken to the nearest port.
“This was a well-coordinated and executed rescue,” Clulow said. He thanked the New Zealand Defence Force, the Australian and New Caledonian rescue centres, the crew of Sofrana Surville and the private yacht.
“The crew of the yacht did all the right things, and it was unfortunate to have struck a whale in open water,” he said. “They were well prepared and the early activation of their EPIRB was key to helping get them to safety. It is an excellent reminder that being prepared when going to sea can save your life.”
Other cruising yachts are now making similar passages, leaving Fiji, Tonga and New Caledonia for New Zealand ahead of the cyclone season. Many will make landfall at Ōpua, where Bay of Islands Marina is a Port of First Arrival for international vessels.
The Coopers said they believed a pod of sperm whales was responsible. Tai Tam is not the first cruising yacht lost to a whale on a Pacific passage in recent years. In 2023 the 44ft Raindancer sank in under 15 minutes after a whale strike midway between the Galápagos and French Polynesia. Its four crew were picked up from their liferaft by another yacht, Rolling Stones, within 10 hours.
The marina says all four of Tai Tam‘s sailors are safe, well and reunited with their loved ones. It also acknowledged RCCNZ, the RNZAF and the crew of Sofrana Surville, who brought all four aboard.
On social media Dempster said it was “with huge sadness that we heard she had been lost”.
“But boats can be replaced. The main thing is that Jeremy, Jemma and everyone on board is safe,” he said. “It was lovely to see them both smiling after what they’d been through, and we can’t wait to welcome them back to Ōpua when they’re ready to start their next adventure.”
