The clock in their cabin stopped at 2pm on Friday. It stopped ticking just seconds after their catamaran leapt off a wave and never came back down.

The yellow catamaran that capsized near Karewa Island on Friday. Photos by: Zoe Hunter.

Skipper Graeme Delaveau, 55, and crewman John Pring, 60, capsized in the middle of the ocean near Karewa Island.

The Auckland pair were taking part in the annual Auckland to Tauranga yacht race when their yellow catamaran – Superbird to Cruz – flipped upside down.

'We'd been sailing in light breezes all day and we came down past Waihi and the wind came in pretty heavy,” says John.

'We reefed the headsail and mainsail and half an hour the wind died away again. So we took the reef out.”

But the wind picked up again as the pair sailed towards Karewa Island – and they were hit by another big gust.

'The thing leapt off a wave and never came back down. It went over on the port side and went totally upside down.

'The clock in our cabin stopped at two o'clock so that's probably when it happened.”

John was in the cock pit steering the catamaran and Graeme was sitting in front of him when the boat capsized. They couldn't get to the main sheet traveller in time.

'We were on a really big angle and it was only moments away from full capsize – and I considered my options and saw the mainsail and slid down the mainsail until I met the water,” says Graeme.

'I looked back up and saw the boat come down with John hanging on to the stanchion. I dived down to look into the cabin and there were ropes hanging everywhere.”

Adrian McHardy, Graeme Delaveau, John Pring and Nigel Rippey.

The pair managed to climb their way to the hull and sat in the wind chill for about 20 minutes before another yacht – Rhythm n Blues – came to the rescue.

'Luckily they were there otherwise we would have got a bit cold pretty quick,” says John.

They weren't scared though – 'just lonely”.

RNB brought the pair on board and sailed into port, where they spent the night.

Originally capsizing near Karewa Island, the catamaran was found about 20 miles away near Mayor Island on Sunday morning when Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club member Adrian McHardy and club commodore Nigel Rippey helped to salvage the boat.

They used the salvage boat and ropes to pull the boat upright.

No one was injured in the incident – but there was damage to the catamaran.

'We lost one of the dagger boards and there's a wee bit of damage to the rigging and we lost some of our sails,” says John. 'But that's about it.”

They've been sailing together for about 12 years and this is the first time something like this has happened to them.

'We've sailed a lot smaller boats and capsized a lot but this was just a bigger version of that,” says John. 'I wasn't terrified but the shock hit us after that.

'We've been told by our wives we're not allowed to race anymore. But we're allowed to go cruising. 'Whether they're going to hold us to that I don't know.”

Either way, they're happy to see their boat right side up.

'We want to say a big thank you to Adrian for coming and salvaging us, RNB, Nigel and the entire administrative staff of the Tauranga Yacht Club.

'We couldn't find a better yacht club to be looked after by.”