French skipper on a round-the-voyage in tiny boat rescued in Torres Straits A French sailor was rescued in the Torres Straits from a voyage in this tiny vessel. A FRENCH yachtsman on a solo voyage around-the-world in an eight-foot yacht - little bigger than a bathtub - has been plucked to safety in wild seas in the Torres Straits. Battling 3m-high seas and 40 knot winds, the solo skipper was reportedly suffering heart problems when he activated his emergency distress beacon in the Coral Sea about 2am last night. It is understood the sailor had been at sea for 100 days in his 2.9m microyacht Poisson d'Avril, which is a French term for "April fool," while the vessel is still adrift on the open ocean. His SOS call was picked up by French authorities in the Pacific who alerted the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in Canberra. AMSA issued a broadcast to shipping in the area and tasked its Cairns based search and rescue Dornier aircraft and a rescue helicopter from Horn Island to assist and head to the area. AMSA's Dornier located the yachtsman at approximately 11.15am. He was winched off his stricken vessel by the Horn Island rescue helicopter crew and flown to Thursday Island hospital for treatment and discharged this afternoon. The skipper was on the first leg from French Polynesia to Darwin as part of his round-the-world adventure. Rescuers described his ambitious bid to sail the open seas in such a tiny boat as a "Don Quixote-like quest."