'I don’t want to declare an emergency, but I am drifting about 150 miles south of New Zealand'

A stranded Irish sailor who is drifting alone in a de-masted yacht off New Zealand said he is focusing on survival and getting his stricken vessel to a safe port after being forced to withdraw from one of the world’s toughest ocean races.

Enda O’Coineen, 60, who was bidding to become the first Irish sailor to sail solo around the world, spoke of his devastation yesterday after the mast on his vessel snapped clean off on New Year’s Day.

“I’m not in distress and I don’t want to declare an emergency, but I am drifting about 150 miles south of New Zealand. Like a space capsule, I have enough food to last me for a few weeks,” he told the Sean O’Rourke Show on RTÉ Radio One.