Yacht Crew Recounts Whale Strike, Safe Aboard Cargo Ship

The four Tai Tam sailors, rescued 18 hours after a sperm whale sank their yacht, share their account and are heading safely to the nearest port.

The 52-foot yacht Tai Tam was sailing roughly 250 nautical miles north of Norfolk Island when a sperm whale struck it, cracking the hull and smashing the starboard steering gear. Australian Jemma Cooper, at the helm, told AFP there was "a loud thud" and the whole boat was pushed sideways; her husband Jeremy, sleeping below deck, said it was "pretty immediately evident it was very serious." The crew spotted a pod of six to eight whales nearby, activated their EPIRB about 30 minutes after the collision, and issued a full mayday.

Despite losing their vessel and their Pacific holiday voyage, all four sailors — two Australians, a New Zealander and a French national — survived without any reported injuries. New Zealander Terry Hetherington told 1News it was "a massive relief" stepping aboard the container ship, and Jeremy Cooper described coffee with the captain and called the ending "terrible, terrible — but luckily no loss of life." Rescue Coordination Centre Operations Manager Mike Clulow praised a "well-coordinated and executed rescue" and said the crew's early EPIRB activation was key to getting them to safety.

The crew bailed water by hand for hours, fought to keep the engine from clogging, and used expansion foam to slow the flooding. French crew member Martin Jaffre, a joiner by trade, told AFP the collision left several gashes in the hull and cracked the fiberglass structure, and he even swam under the boat to inspect the damage. Late at night they abandoned ship for a life raft in calm seas under a full moon, and early Sunday they cut the tether, fearing the sinking yacht would drag them down. Soon after, the Tai Tam slipped beneath the waves.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon flew to the area to establish radio communications and coordinate the response, with New Zealand, Australian and New Caledonian rescue agencies all taking part, according to KSBW. At 6 a.m. Sunday — about 18 hours after the whale encounter — the 470-foot container ship MV Sofrana Surville reached the tiny life raft. Jeremy Cooper admitted the approach of the giant ship was itself frightening, but within half an hour the crew had scaled a ladder to safety. The New Zealand Defence Force released dramatic drone footage of the sinking and rescue.

The encounter is a reminder that whales and boats increasingly share the same water. Discover Magazine notes a 2024 study in Science found shipping traffic overlaps with about 92 percent of the ranges of blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales, and that for whales a collision can mean crushing injuries or propeller cuts, even from small recreational boats.

The crew was last known to be on their way to the nearest port to disembark, closing out a voyage that ended with their yacht on the seafloor but everyone alive. The New Zealand Defence Force's released imagery and the coordinated multi-nation response have turned the incident into a case study in preparedness: Clulow called it "an excellent reminder that being prepared when going to sea can save your life." Discover Magazine also frames it against the 1820 Essex sinking that inspired Moby-Dick — two centuries apart, modern beacons, patrol aircraft and a nearby merchant ship turned a potential tragedy into a story with everyone home.