The co-skippers of a yacht forced to abandon ship during the Newport to Bermuda Race gave a first-hand account of their dramatic rescue at sea.

Mary Martin and Eric Irwinrecalled finding that the Alliance, owned by the pair, had sustained “catastrophic damage” and was taking on water.

With nine crew on board, they issued a Mayday call at about 3am on Sunday and the Ceilidh, another competitor vessel, came to the rescue. By then, the Alliance crew were abandoning ship into their life raft.

Conditions were challenging at the time as the yacht entered the Gulf Stream against strong currents and winds, about half way through the race.

All were rescued without injury by Ceilidh, a boat already crewed by seven.

Mr Irwin, a retired Navy officer, told bermudarace.com in an on-camera interview: “At first we thought it was the rig that let go. We subsequently found out that we had catastrophic damage to the rudder area with some water incursion.”

Ms Martin, who trained in the Merchant Marine and attended Massachusetts Maritime Academy, added: “I heard a loud bang and I thought we lost the rig.

“It was kind of like a big boom, metallic sounding. It was a pretty significant, loud sound and then, of course, we got the call for all hands on deck.

“I never actually made it on deck because by then our on-watch people realised we lost steering so they opened up the rudder compartment and noticed all the damage back there.

“It was total structural damage back where the rudder is.”

After stabilising the boat, the crew put to work two high-powered water pumps but the damage was too severe and the water continued to rise.

“The damage was so significant we knew there was no way to repair it,” Ms Martin said.

He added: “I immediately got on the phone and issued a Mayday and DSC [Digital Selective Calling] call which sends out the emergency signal.

“I said we were taking on water.”

Ms Martin fired off the Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon.

Soon after, the closest boat to Alliance, the Ceilidh, which was about three miles away, responded that it could be there within half an hour, while Banter also offered assistance.

Ms Martin got on the satellite phone to Urgent Bermuda Race Operations and news was relayed to the coastguard.

She recalled: “We got ready to take the essentials that we needed for the raft, emergency water, ditch bags with people’s passports and medicine, things like iPads and tablets, we took the boat computer.”

Jim Coggeshall, skipper of the Ceilidh, recalled: “We had just entered the Gulf Stream, which makes it a bit tricky because you get the current against the wind and there was plenty of wind, so it was very choppy.

“We got a distress call on our radio. We realised we were the closest boat and immediately altered course. We had to beat upwind to get to them.”

When Alliance caught sight of Ceilidh, the crew immediately took measures to enter the life raft.

Mr Irwin said: “It was a different experience jumping into the raft, particularly given the sea state.

“It took two people to hold the life raft. So once we were in the life raft, the next task was to make sure we disconnect and then as we drifted away from Alliance, that was kind of my emotional moment to see a lot of blood, sweat and tears, to see my baby sinking.”

He said Ceilidh took three deliberate approaches before getting to the crew.

The Alliance crew had to be clipped in, in case they fell overboard during transfer.

Mr Coggeshall said: “My crew was amazing.”

With all safely on board, they started the 48-hour journey to Bermuda.

Mr Coggeshall added: “We had 16 people on a 40-foot boat.

“The boat has a little odour in it, it was hot, it was like going into a sauna and people were just laying wherever they could find a place to lie down.”

Although the Alliance crew offered to help sail, the Ceilidh team was determined to finish the race on allowed time and could not accept assistance.

However, Mr Coggeshall said: “To me it really doesn’t matter, we got nine people out of the ocean.”

The seven-strong crew of the Gunga Din, another competitor, was also forced to abandon ship 80 miles from Bermuda during the race after the vessel took on water.

The team was rescued by Desna, unharmed.

A spokeswoman for the race said that contact was lost with the trackers aboard Alliance and Gunga Din soon after the rescues.

She highlighted: “We are grateful our crews take their safety at sea training seriously and are prepared to handle these types of situations.”

• A link to the race tracker is available athttps://cf.yb.tl/nb2024