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Experienced sailor Bobby Cooper, his partner Cheryl Kerr and their children Lauren, 13, and Robbie, 11, were saved by the crew of another yacht which was taking shelter from the same storm.

Mr Cooper and family set sail from Palma in Spain last year to travel across the Atlantic and the South Pacific 

Disaster struck their 50ft catamaran, Avanti, in the early hours of Sunday when they ran aground in heavy seas on the uninhabited Beveridge Reef, 600 miles from the nearest island, Niue, and

1,500 miles from New Zealand.

They raised the alarm and a distress call was answered by a research vessel which had taken shelter in a nearby lagoon while on a whale-watching expedition.

Mr Cooper and his family, from Stirling, feared the Avanti was about to break up and scrambled on board the 60ft Dona Catharina, whose crew had been monitoring emergency radio broadcasts.

The New Zealand maritime authorities said it was “sheer luck” the large ketch was so close when Mr Cooper made his mayday call.

Martin Vogel, captain of the Dona Catharina, said the Avanti was a wreck by the time he reached it and the Cooper family were shocked by their close call.

He said: “They were pretty distressed but they’re all sleeping now. Honestly, they’re coping remarkably well.”

The Coopers recovered their passports and some belongings before abandoning the Avanti for a life raft.

Friends of the family launched an appeal on website Just Giving. It said: “We’re raising $20,000 to help Bobby Cooper and his family who have just lost their boat Avanti and all their

belongings on Beveridge Reef in the South Pacific.

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“Not only has the trip already thrown up some challenges, they have now had the misfortune to be grounded on Beveridge reef with the total loss of the boat. They are all safe and have been

picked up by another yacht.”

Mr Cooper survived one of yacht racing’s worst tragedies when the British-registered barque Marques sank in under a minute off Bermuda in June 1984, claiming the lives of nine of the 28 on

board.

The 117ft square-rigged sail training vessel was competing in a tall ship race to Nova Scotia when she went down in 117mph winds.

Mr Cooper, 19 at the time, raised the alarm seconds before she started to keel over and made it to a lifeboat.

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