Three sailors arrived in New York this morning after being rescued from a yacht that ran into rough weather off Bermuda.

The crew on board the 42-foot yacht Esmerelda decided to abandon the vessel in heavy seas and high winds and were plucked off the vessel by a car carrier on Saturday.

A Bermuda Marine Operations Centre spokesman said RCC Bermuda received a radio beacon or emergency position indicating radio beacon alert from a position 150 miles north-northeast of Bermuda around midnight on Friday night.

After some initial confusion about the validity of the beacon, a US Coast Guard C130 aircraft was dispatched to the area.

It found the boat, which was en route to Bermuda from Halifax, and the vehicle carrier Paganella was diverted to the location.

The crew said they had endured 40 to 50 knots winds and ten-foot swells caused by the remnants of Hurricane Eta.

The crew members, one of whom was suffering from medical problems, abandoned the yacht and transferred to the Paganella by a pilot ladder at 9am on Saturday.

The yacht was damaged during the transfer and lost its mast.

No injuries resulted from the transfer and the crew were found to be well enough to be taken to New York, which was the ship’s next port of call.

The website marinetraffic.com, said the Paganella arrived in New York yesterday morning.

Confusion over the alert came after a vessel in the area was in communication with a US military aircraft about the weather before the beacon was activated.

Rescuers spotted the beacon was programmed for New Zealand and was registered to a vessel which was destroyed in a hurricane in the Bahamas several years ago.

But it was later discovered the beacon had been transferred to another vessel and it was a genuine Mayday call.

The spokesman noted that wrong registration of emergency beacons could lead to potentially life-threatening mistakes being made.