The yacht was hit with a "southerly buster" wind change about 8pm on Thursday that broke the mast and tangled the propeller in rigging.

It resulted in "no power, no mast, and winds in excess in 25 knots from the south south-east" for the couple on board, with waves in excess of two metres.

However, the owners had a "good anchor, a good amount of chain, and plenty of rope" which kept them out of trouble until Marine Rescue was able to arrive.

"If they didn't have a good anchor they would have been on the beach by [the time we arrived]," Mr Treloggen said.

"Their flares were working and they knew where they were.

"They were well prepared, they didn't panic and they did everything we asked of them. It all went very smoothly."

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Mr Preloggen accompanied by two experienced crew members journeyed to the boat, where the couple was able to put on life jackets, get into their rubber dinghy which was on the yacht, and drift to the Marine Rescue boat.

When they returned to shore police transferred the couple to a motel.

The boat was insured and is expected to be collected soon.

Mr Preloggen said it was the third rescue in four weeks for the volunteer service.

"It's like driving motorcars, there's a range of things that can go wrong," he said.

"What happened yesterday with that wind changing, it just caught him smack bang in the middle of that. I felt the wind hit the house back here - it's a bit of a phenomenon, that after a hot day we sometimes get what we call a southerly buster, where the wind will change suddenly, and that hit him hard enough to bust his mast."

The incident occurred at Gardens Reef north of Binalong Bay.

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