The yacht belonged to two sailors who were rescued off the Wollongong coast on Saturday before washing ashore at Austinmer.

The experienced sailors got into trouble around 1am on Saturday when their vessel capsized 15 nautical miles off the coast of Wollongong.

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A search began about 1pm after the yacht was reported missing and the HMAS Brisbane responded, reaching the search area about an hour later.

They were eventually located by the private merchant vessel MV Arietta Lily eight miles east of Port Kembla, and were taken into the care of medics on HMAS Brisbane after they were rescued.

The sailors were reunited with family, after spending 15 hours clinging to their capsized yacht amid heavy winds and large swells.

Their yacht, however, continued to drift with the tides further north to Sharky's Beach.

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A salvage operation was conducted late Tuesday, and captured on camera for the Illawarra and Surrounds Marine Life Sightings Facebook page.

The photographer said crews were "great with the clean up also removing debris from the beach".

"We arrived around 4pm and they had the boat strapped up already and it was loaded onto the truck within half an hour," he told the Mercury.

Damage to the boat looks unrepairable, with the eye-witness stating it was so bad the vessel was "breaking up whilst being craned up".

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