A 60-foot sailboat en route from New Jersey to St. Maarten had to be abandoned 300 miles north west of Bermuda yesterday morning.

The Barbados registered tanker, the Irving Primrose, rescued the four-crew members within two hours of having received a distress call, despite hazardous conditions at sea.

The 1,100 foot tanker had radioed Bermuda Harbour Radio at 8.50 a.m. yesterday to say that they had received a distress call from the sailing yacht Altair.

In the teeth of 20-foot seas and winds out of the northwest at 25 to 35 knots, the Irving Primrose was on the scene within two hours.

The 300,000 deadweight ton tanker fired a line to the disabled yacht and secured it along side and used the crane to lift the two male and two female American crew members out of the yacht.

A decision was made to abandon the craft because of the poor state of the yacht and the condition of one of the female crew members, who was suffering from seasickness and had become dangerously dehydrated.

The sailboat had run into trouble when their primary and emergency steering systems failed during heavy weather.