Bermuda-bound sailors were today rescued after their yacht ran into difficulty 70 miles off the Island last night.The four Irish nationals ran into problems after the engine failed on the 48ft class sloop they’d sailed from Westbrook, Connecticut ten days ago. Their plan was to stop in Bermuda en route to Antigua.Bermuda Maritime Operations first received a distress call from the vessel Wolfhound, around 5pm yesterday, a spokesman said.“Initial problems surfaced [when] a new inverter charger failed, which resulted in loss of battery power approximately 400 miles off the Delaware coast. The vessel also suffered engine failure a day after departure resulting in the crew having no power for communications or navigational systems for eight days. In the last 24 hours the vessel suffered two knockdowns which resulted in the skipper activating the emergency beacon on board in an effort to alert authorities ashore to their distress situation.”The vessel was only located through a co-ordinated effort involving the United States and Ireland, the spokesman added.“The crew of S/v Wolfhound are now safely on board M/v Tetian Trader which is presently en route to Mersin, Turkey. The U.S. Coast Guard C-130 initially on scene returned to the US while the HH-60 helicopter and second C-130 aircraft have recently landed in Bermuda. The C-130 aircraft will depart Bermuda in the next few hours with the HH-60 helicopter returning to the US on Sunday. S/v Wolfhound sank shortly after being released from the ship in a position 64 miles north of Bermuda.“Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre would like to highlight the importance of international cooperation between search and rescue organisations, in this case the USA, Ireland, and Bermuda as all three authorities worked to affect a successful outcome.“This case proves the effectiveness of carrying a 406MHz beacon for distress alerting, however, it also highlights the need for the beacon to be correctly programmed and registered with a country’s SAR authorities for effective tasking of SAR resources. In the case of Bermudian beacons this is with the Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre who can be contacted on 297-1010 for information and advice on correct procedures.