A luxury charter yacht that was taking on water and had lost its steering off the New South Wales mid north coast is "under control and stable", the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) says.

AMSA spokesman Sam Cardwell said the agency had gone to the aid of 37-metre super yacht Masteka 2 after emergency beacons were detected about 5:00am today.

Mr Cardwell said the yacht had six crew on board, and was about 260 kilometres east of Port Macquarie.

AMSA said the leak causing the yacht to take in water had been repaired after two crew members were rescued.

Mr Cardwell said the yacht would remain where it was overnight until a tugboat could take it to safe harbour tomorrow.

"They think they've got the vessel under control and stable, they've managed to stem the leak," he said.

"And now they are going to wait there until their tug boat arrives to help them back to shore which should be sometime tomorrow afternoon."

The yacht was about 260 kilometres east of Port Macquarie when it hit trouble. ( Supplied: Masteka 2 Charters )

'Main priority at the moment is to get to a safe harbour'

AMSA staff are monitoring the yacht as they work to get the vessel to a safe harbour. ( Supplied: Australian Maritime Safety Authority )

Earlier, Mr Cardwell said AMSA had tasked its Brisbane Dornier search and rescue aircraft to the area.

He said no-one was injured in the incident.

"There were six crew on board but they didn't need all of them to do the repairs, so two of them have come off and gone onto the Carnival Spirit," Mr Cardwell said.

The four remained to attempt to repair the vessel.

"The Carnival Spirit is going to remain nearby just in case they need to provide any assistance," Mr Cardwell said.

'Rescues at sea are never simple affairs'

He said the recovery of the yacht would be quite a large exercise.

"Rescues at sea are never simple affairs, especially when they are this far off the coast," he said.

No-one has been injured in the incident. ( Supplied: Masteka 2 Charters )

"Very few surface craft can get there, so you really rely on what's in the area to come to assistance."

He said the incident illustrated the importance of having a registered emergency beacon for everyone going out to sea.

"The super yacht had two emergency beacons on board that were both registered with AMSA," he said.

"That meant when they set off the beacons we not only got a position of where they were and that they were in distress, but we also got information about exactly what sort of vessel it was and what the emergency contacts were.

"So we could get in contact with them straight away and work out what the distress was."