NSW yacht rescue: Two people recovered from sinking damaged vessel in dangerous seas

A 60-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman have been rescued from a yacht stranded off the NSW coast.

The two rescued people are expected to return to land on Tuesday evening.

Choppy conditions had curbed a multi-agency operation to rescue the two people who were on board.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority said it received a distress beacon alert about midday on Monday from the 19-metre-long yacht known as the Spirit of Mateship.

A mechanical failure - believed to be a broken rudder - saw the ship become stranded around 185km east of Nowra, until it drifted further east to sit around 300km offshore.

Navy vessel HMAS Canberra was assisting in the rescue effort in addition to NSW Police vessel Nemesis.

The 50-70km/h winds along with up to six-metre seas made executing the rescue effort challenging for crews.

Australian Maritime Safety Authority duty manager Ben Flight said the yacht shared an update early on Tuesday before the rescue was complete.

“It’s still time-sensitive, they’ve suffered a mechanical failure, and they can’t make their own way at the moment, and are taking on water,” he told Sunrise.

“With the conditions as they are, it is quite a challenging environment.

Mr Flight said the two people on board the boat were believed to be uninjured, but presumably exhausted.

They would be airlifted out of their vessel but for the choppy conditions, he said.

“Unfortunately due to the weather it’s unsafe to winch and recover someone into a helicopter.

“Once they’re on board a vessel, they’ll make an assessment of the two crew and then determine the best way to get them back to land as safely and as quickly as possible.

Two Royal Australian Navy ships and an RAAF C-130J Hercules aircraft were initially involved in the rescue operation.