Shipwrecked sailors rescued off Fraser Island

TWO sailors were shaken but uninjured after being rescued when their 12m yacht sank east of Sandy Cape on Fraser Island about 11.45pm on Friday.

Sailors return to VMR after being rescued from a life raft following the sinking of a 12m yacht east of Sandy Cape on Fraser Island. Picture: Contributed

TWO sailors were shaken but uninjured after being rescued when their 12m yacht sank east of Sandy Cape on Fraser Island about 11.45pm on Friday.

Volunteer Marine Rescue spokesman Graham Kingston said the vessel apparently tilted alarmingly and took water so quickly that the crew had less than a minute to broadcast mayday messages and abandon ship.

They were collected from their life raft by a nearby 110m merchant ship BBC Seine which then transferred them to Bundy Rescue, along with their life raft for the trip to Burnett Heads with only the clothes they were wearing.

Merchant ship, BBC Seine, recovered two sailors from their life raft after they abandoned a 12m yacht which was sinking east of Sandy Cape on Fraser Island. Picture: Contributed

Mr Kingston said the rescue boat crew were on standby at the base just after 1am on Saturday to await rendezvous details.

"Bundy Rescue with five crew members departed Burnett Heads at 2am," he said. 

Mr Kingston said the rescue crew arrived at the rendezvous near Lady Elliott Island at 5:30am, just after sunrise.

He said the sunken yacht was on delivery from Burnett Heads to Fiji when disaster struck and the sailors spent 45 minutes in the life raft before the arrival of BBC Seine.

VMR skipper Bill Ker said it was an unfortunate event but the sailors were lucky rescue services were able to respond so quickly to the emergency.

He urged all off-shore boaties to register their EPIRBs with AMSA and to log-on and log-off with VMR.