The Marie Lynnette, a 44-foot cruising yacht, sparked a large-scale rescue mission when she got into trouble in rough seas after a steering cable broke. By the time she hit the beach her rudder had gone.

Geographe Marine Engineering director Luke Purdy led the charge to get the vessel off the beach.

The options were either to float out or cut her up and remove her piece by piece.

Due to the limited access, the environmental impact and the sand at Boodjidup being so soft it was decided to float the yacht back to Port Geographe.

The salvage operation started at 5am, using a 25 tonne excavator to dig a hole large enough to roll the yacht on to its side in order to remove the 50-foot mast and sail rig, and to patch the gaping hole where the keel had torn away.

Commercial crayfisher Steve Hughes and his crew were in position aboard the 1000hp vessel Skallywag to begin the tow to port as soon as the tide was right.

The Marie Lynnette had been righted and the rigging loaded.

Luke takes over the story from here:

“The excavator was then used to dig the biggest hole around the yacht you have ever seen on a beach, to facilitate easy passage back into the ocean. “With Skallywag in position a channel was cut to the ocean and the water was let into the hole.

“The yacht instantly stated to float, and at that moment the cray boat was instructed to pull like buggery,” Luke said.

“As the yacht hit the first set of surf breaks it launched skyward with me and the two other crew on board, and the looks on their pale faces said it all, ‘why do we work for you and why are we tube riding a 44ft surfboard. Isn’t this supposed to be a cruising yacht’.

“The second set of breakers hit the yacht square on the starboard side and rolled her right up on her side. At this point I thought it might go all the way over and if I had time might have started preparing to abandon ship, but these things happen so fast all you have time to do is hang on!