THE commander of a Tweed marine rescue unit will nominate volunteers for awards after a difficult rescue off Burleigh Heads after Christmas.

Point Danger Marine Rescue commander Bernie Gabriel said he would nominate the rescue crew for council and state awards for bravery after going to the aid of a yacht in "extremely difficult" weather conditions.

Three people - a man, woman and child - were aboard a yacht when it lost the use of its rudder in rough seas on December 30.

To make matters worse, all on board were sick.

Gold Coast rescue crews were busy with other emergencies that weekend, so called on Point Danger Marine Rescue to help the yacht, Lianna.

Kerry Kane (skipper), Rick Hinfelaar, Chris Ingall, Stirling Ryan and Kyle Osmond were on the water at 1.30pm.

At the start of the rescue operation, the boat Point Danger 30 crossed the Tweed River bar with swell up to 4m in a 15-knot southerly.

The rescuers found the Lianna about four nautical miles east of Burleigh Headland.

Mr Gabriel said it was exemplary work by the rescue boat crew in "very dangerous conditions", including two bar crossings.

Due to the rough conditions, the rescue crew towed the crippled yacht with the sailors aboard through the Southport Seaway with the Southport Coast Guard vessel as an escort.

"Because of the heavy sea conditions it took two hours for Point Danger 30 to return to Tweed Heads, which is normally a 40-minute trip," Mr Gabriel said.

Once back at the Tweed River bar, the seas were well above 4m and the crew was battling breaking waves at the front of the bar on an outgoing tide.

Mr Gabriel said it was the worst time to cross the bar.

"This was an extremely hazardous rescue carried out with the professionalism and consideration by Point Danger rescue personnel on both the boat and at the operations centre," he said.

"There were no injuries sustained by any person or major boat damage suffered."

Mr Kane said a decision was made to keep the three sailors on board the stricken yacht because it was too dangerous to approach the vessel.

"If it was a life and death situation then we would have gone in there, but the yacht was not going to sink," he said.

Mr Kane said after the yacht was moored at Southport, the return trip to Tweed River for the five rescuers was rough with low visibility.

"We had one guy who was really sick on the way back. We had to secure him with the harness while he had his head over the side of the boat," Mr Kane said.

"The bar crossings are always bad because it is one of those unknown quantities every time we go out."

Mr Kane said Southport Seaway was a foreign bar that presented different problems and unknown quantities for the Tweed-based crew.