Naked Australian rower rescued after record attempt goes awry

A naked Australian adventurer was rescued by a cruise ship near the remote archipelago of Vanuatu after capsizing while attempting to row solo across the Pacific Ocean.

Tom Robinson clung to the hull of his heavily modified rowing boat for almost 13 hours before he was plucked out of the water on Friday morning, according to a statement posted on the expedition's website.

The 24-year-old was seeking to become the youngest person to row across the Pacific Ocean -- a journey of around 8,000 nautical miles (14,800 kilometres) starting in Peru and ending in Australia.

Robinson's team said in the statement that the situation "was caused by an unexpectedly large wave that came through the main hatch and flooded the cabin".

After activating his emergency distress beacon, Robinson was spotted by a plane dispatched from the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

The cruise ship diverted to rescue Robinson found him clinging naked to the overturned hull of his homemade boat, his team added, saying he "sounded well after a precarious night".

Robinson set off from Peru in July last year, and was aiming to make landfall on Australia's eastern coast by December after stops in Tahiti, Cook Islands and Vanuatu.