At about 10pm on Friday 20 March, 2015 police responded to a distress call from EPIRB on a yacht off the coast near Broughton Island.

Weather conditions were 35 knot winds and 2m seas.

Police responded from Nelson Bay water police and located the vessel floundering in the large swells.

The vessel was secured and towed back to Nelson Bay marina.

It took in excess of four hours to return the vessel to safer waters due to the conditions.

Once back in the bay the 47 year old skipper was spoken to and it was discovered the yacht was actually unregistered.

He was spoken to about sailing in such horrendous conditions and issued with an infringement notice for his unregistered vessel.