Veteran Peter Turner, of Newark, Notts, and crewman Jonathan Stuttard, 39, floated helplessly after the £800,000 cruiser Asolare crashed into rocks off Australia’s great Barrier Reef.

They sent up a distress flare and were eventually winched to safety by a rescue helicopter.

Mr Turner, former Commodore of West Stockwith Yacht Club, South Yorks, said: “It was not quite what I planned for a Sunday morning. I’ve lost a super yacht less than a year old.”