Sailing icon rescued from sinking yacht

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 29 Jun 2015 He has sailed nine times around the world, He broke world records in 1988 when he completed a triple circumnavigation of the world alone.

Twenty-seven years later, at the age of 75, West Australian sailor Jon Sander is still sailing.

But once in a decade sea condition caused him some serious issues over the weekend.

He was delivering a boat from Darwin to Fremantle when he was forced to activate an emergency EPIRB when in heavy seas with six metre swells his boat began taking on water through a hole in the deck.

He said the seas were extremely rough, punching a hole in the deck of the yacht.

'It looked like two skin fittings had come away leaving two holes,' he said.

'I blocked it first with a screwdriver and rags, then tried soft wooden plugs but couldn't do that.

'It was coming in faster than pump could cope — the floorboards were floating.

“I had no choice but to activate the EPIRB.”

The authority sent an aircraft to the area and contacted container ship Antwerp Bridge and rig tender Liga which were in the vicinity at the time.

The ships reached the stricken sailor from the sinking yacht at 8.16pm as he was preparing his life raft, 20 nautical miles south of Steep Point last night.

Mr Sanders was recovered safe and well by the tender vessel and is resting in Geraldton after making landfall just before 5:00am.