Solo sailor's voyage ended by suspected whale

A Swiss sailor's round-the-world voyage came to an abrupt halt off the coast of New Zealand after his yacht hit what he believed to be a sleeping whale.

Bernt Luchtenborg was plucked off his stricken 15.84m vessel, Horizons, yesterday by a cruise liner after radioing for help due to a broken rudder.

But he has not yet abandoned all hope of completing his circumnavigation of the globe.

Mr Luchtenborg's wife, Anita, told The Dominion Post her husband hoped to charter a fishing boat and go in search of his ship.

"He's okay, and he's happy he's on that boat," she said.

"He was scared, absolutely. He's very, very happy now. But the first thing he wants to do is to save the Horizons."

Mr Luchtenborg was sailing from Sydney to Milford Sound when he hit the large underwater object, about 800 kilometres west of Stewart Island, on Sunday night.

On his weblog, he wrote he suspected the object to be a sleeping whale.

The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) sent an RNZAF Orion search aircraft to assess the situation, then diverted cruise liner Seven Seas Mariner away from its passage to Milford Sound.

The liner met Horizons about 8am and rescued the sailor from his crippled yacht.

Mr Luchtenborg was five months into his bid to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly, without stopping.

Though relieved to be rescued, he wanted to get his boat back and continue his trip, his wife said from her home in Lucerne, Switzerland.

"He wants to catch his boat. She is alone on the sea."

The RCCNZ said Horizons was still afloat 650km west of Stewart Island when the liner left the area. As the abandoned yacht was a potential hazard to navigation, a warning had been issued by Australian authorities.

- NZPA