Two sailing instructors have told of the shocking moment a 40-ton whale came crashing down onto their yacht off the South African coast.

Ralth Mothes, 59, and his partner Paloma Werner, 50, were watching the beast at a distance, near Cape Town, when it moved towards their 32ft-vessel Intrepid.

“I thought, ‘Surely, it can’t be on a collision course with us,’” Mr Mothes said.

But the young Southern Right whale slipped out of view before suddenly flipping into the air and smashing the Intrepid’s mast.

The massive mammal thrashed around on the vessel before rolling back into Table Bay.

The stunning scene was photographed by a nearby sailor.

Miss Werner was quoted by News 24.com as saying: “Thank God we had a steel yacht. If it had been fibreglass, we would’ve been history. We are lucky to be alive.”

“It really was quite incredible, but very scary,” she continued, in The Daily Telegraph.

“We’d spotted it about 100 metres away… then suddenly it was right up beside us.

“I assumed it would go underneath the boat but, instead, it sprang out of the sea.”

The whale, which was between 35ft and 45ft long, snapped the Intrepid’s mast in two.

Miss Werner added: “There were bits of skin and blubber left behind, and the mast was wrecked. It brought down the rigging too.”

The couple’s mast and the engine cover will reportedly cost about £10,000 to repair.

News item courtesy of www.skynews.com