Six sailors forced to abandon a yacht after it burst into flames in the middle of the Atlantic arrived safely in Bermuda last night on board the 137-foot schooner which rescued them.

In sombre spirits, but glad he and his crew made it through the ordeal, Massachusetts resident Mr. Tom Smalley expressed his sadness at having to abandon his 41-foot yacht Old Thompson .

He said months of preparations for a Caribbean holiday were wiped out when disaster suddenly struck on Wednesday night.

A fire broke out in the engine and spread throughout the yacht in seconds, forcing him and his crew to abandon ship with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Had it not been for the 137-foot private schooner Roseway sailing a parallel course to them, they could still be drifting in their liferaft, Mr. Smalley said.

A crew member told how they were alerted to the plight of Old Thompson after spotting flames and smoke billowing from the yacht.

"We could see flames from a couple of miles away and we could smell burning plastic and wires,'' Mr. Charlie Conlan said. "Then we saw a flare go off and it was all hands on deck.

"They were lucky we were so close by. We had just had small talk with them on the radio earlier in the evening.'' The fire broke out at about 10.30 p.m. about 200 miles south of Nantucket, Mr.

Smalley said.

"The dodger (canopy) caught fire, then other materials and it just spread throughout the cabins,'' he said. "We had to deploy the life raft and abandon ship.'' His girlfriend Ms Jan Weinshanker, who flew to Bermuda yesterday to meet him, was asleep at home in Manchester, Massachusetts, when she received the bad news.

The yacht's EPIRB satellite distress signal went off and alerted the US Coast Guard within seconds of the blaze.

"They (The US Coast Guard) told me it's a false alarm in 90 percent of the cases. But they called back half an hour later and told me the boat had caught fire. I heard nothing more for hours.'' She had been planning to fly to Bermuda anyway to join Mr. Smalley for the trip south.

"It's was a real heartbreaker for him,'' she said. "He'd had the boat for a year and spent that time preparing for this trip.'' Mr. Smalley was grateful to the crew of the Roseway for their help in rescuing him and his friends and for their hospitality aboard the schooner.

"We are all just sad over the loss,'' friend and crew Mr. John Mills said.

After the EPIRB went off, the US Coast Guard arranged for a freighter in the area to go to the yacht's rescue.

But the Roseway had immediately gone to the stricken vessel.

The crew threw a rope to the men and they hauled their life raft in twice to allow all the crew to jump off and climb aboard.

They also gave them a large fire extinguisher and the fire was put out before they lost sight of the yacht, which was still afloat.

"It was an amazing coincidence we were so close to them,'' captain Mr. Gepore Sloan said. The rescue went smoothly as rough weather conditions calmed.

An air and sea search to retrieve Old Thompson had not been successful as of last night. It is understood it was insured.