That night has resulted in awards for Batemans Bay, Narooma and Bermagui crews - but could have resulted in tragedy.

Ray Muller, of Cardwell, his wife Susan and their son David had sailed through Bass Strait to Eden and were sailing home to Queensland in fair weather on January 24, 2017.

Then their 52-footer, the La Jo Jo Tres struck an object - probably a log - at about 4.30pm which crippled the rudder.

"The boat pitched and rolled to one side," Mr Muller said.

"Our head sail started flapping uncontrollably. Before we could get it corrected it had destroyed that sail. You could not turn the boat."

Soon Mr Muller realised all his back-up steering systems had also been damaged.

A chain link had snapped in the steering and the hydraulic back-up steering mount had "pulled itself apart". 

A hand-steering device had also been damaged.

They had no rudder and the wind was rising. 

"We had lost all rudder control and almost 30 knot winds were hitting us from south-east, pushing us against the coastline," he said.

"As we neared the coast, I declared an emergency. There was no way of self rescue.

"I had power, but was on full lock of rudder."

The yacht was stranded 800 metres off the rocks.

Mr Muller was going around in circles, but each time the yacht faced seaward, he tried to power out of trouble.

"As I pointed out to sea, I applied power," he said.

"The south-east swell hitting the boat kept it straight, and we were able to nudge away off shore."

The family was able to hold on through the evening, with Marine Rescue's Glenn Sullivan offering advice over the radio, until help arrived later that night.

"It was pitch black," Mr Muller said.

One of the rescue crew was Keith Wrench, who sent a video message from his new home in the United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 19, to his colleagues as they received honours from the Commissioner.

"By 9pm they were getting close," Mr Muller said. "We let off a flare, but they could not see it.

"We had drifted 1.5 kilometres further south, when the expectation had been that we would drift to the north.

"It took some three hours for crews to punch their way to us."

The relief at seeing the Batemans Bay crew turned to anxiety when they faced the difficult task of securing a line to the yacht.

"When you have two boats close together, you have 10 feet between you, but then you have inches between you, pitching and rolling," Mr Muller said.

"The crew and myself were utterly exhausted. They managed to throw a line, we were able to secure it and they took us in tow. That was such a sense of relief."

It was short-lived as the Batemans Bay crew had become seriously ill in the tough conditions.

The Bermagui crew then had to secure another line and tow the 16.5 tonne vessel to Batemans Bay.

"I take my hat off to all of them. They were forced to tow a stricken vessel with no rudder through heavy seas almost three hours to Batemans Bay," Mr Muller said.

"They did a fantastic job."

The family "collapsed back to our beds, while rocking and rolling", but any thought of rest was again short lived.

"I checked the bilge and found almost half a metre of water under the floorboards," Mr Muller said.

"The yacht was leaking and sinking. The impact had damaged the pump, crushed a hose, burnt out the pump, and we had to gerry rig a second pump and pump into the sink."

Mr Muller praised the volunteers.

"Without these guys who were willing to risk their lives in atrocious conditions we would have been in dire trouble," he said.

Batemans Bay recipients of the Commissioner's Commendation for Courage were Keith Wrench, Peter Varkulevicius, Michael Dolan, Paul Hallam; Bermagui recipients were Raymond McLeod, Denise Page and Alec Percival.

A Commissioner’s Citation was also made to Narooma's Judith Barry-Cotter, Bermagui's Peter Ford, and Batemans Bay's Michael Syrek, Matthew Mason, Peter Withington, David Murn and Donald Brewster.