The 29m Asia sank last week after hitting an unidentified object

The 29m (100ft) sailing superyacht Asia sank some 55Nm off an Indonesian island on the weekend after hitting an unidentified object. During the incident, the UK Coastguard and other agencies helped rescue the four people who were on board, including two British citizens.

Initially the yacht was thought to be UK registered, but after investigation was found to be a Malaysian-registered craft.

Following “extensive investigation work” by HM Coastguard, contact was made with the boat’s skipper at 5.00am on Saturday 23 November. He confirmed that the vessel sank after hitting an object in the water some 55 nautical miles off an Indonesian island, but all four crew had managed to get in board its RIB tender and were met by marine police at the nearest landfall.

“We are relieved to hear that the crew are now safely ashore,” said HM Coastguard controller David Jones, who was in charge of co-ordinating efforts overnight. “This incident demonstrated good international working between the UK Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, JRCC Australia, JRCC Jakarta, USA Mission Control Centre and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.”

SY Asia is a 29.8m (97ft) high-performance sailing superyacht used for high-end charters in South-East Asia. The Don Brooke-designed vessel has a steel hull and aluminium superstructure, and was built by Culham Engineering of Whangarei, New Zealand in 2009.