A rescue operation is underway after a solo sailor activated an emergency beacon in “extremely rough” waters off the Great Australian Bight.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (ASMA) reported receiving an emergency signal from the sailor about 5pm Friday.
The Queensland-registered 6.5m sailboat was about 630km west of Kangaroo Island and 740km southeast of Esperance.
The sailor has been identified as Xavier Doerr, 22, who embarked on a circumnavigation of Australia in May.
“It’s been a hell of a 24 hours. As most people know by now there’s been an air and sea rescue initiated down in South Australia,” his shore manager, Lee Randall, said on Saturday.
“We lost communication with Xavier for an extended period of time yesterday afternoon… at that point in time he’d sustained some injuries and there was some water ingress into the boat and he genuinely feared for his safety.
“We here, as part of his shore team, support Xavier’s decisions but, really, Xavier’s decisions are his own out there.”
Mr Doerr had recently been forced to suspend his circumnavigation on June 7 after his vessel sustained extensive damage of Western Australia’s coastline.
He resumed the journey just eight days ago, leaving Fremantle on June 29.
The Gold Coast man had been attempting to break Australia’s most difficult offshore sailing world record, according to his website, a solo, nonstop, unassisted circumnavigation while livestreaming the journey.
In a statement, ASMA said rescue aircraft from Perth and Melbourne remained in the area overnight, maintaining contact with Mr Doerr using VHF radio.
Two bulk carriers, Theodore JR and HSL Mexico, have been diverted to the area, expecting to arrive on Saturday.
A Royal Australian Air Force aircraft reached the vessel’s location on Saturday morning.
“The Ship’s Masters will need to assess their ability to safely conduct a rescue in extremely rough weather conditions,” ASMA said.
“Weather conditions in the area are severe with winds estimated at 100-110 km per hour and seas reported to be 6m.”
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for the region on Friday, with “isolated destructive” wind gusts up to 125km forecast for Friday night and into early Saturday.
“This system is much stronger and is expected to make land later on Friday, then sweep across the southeast of Australia on Saturday,” BOM meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said on Friday.
There are many risks and hazards over the coming days associated with these weather fronts.”