A yacht wrecked in the Orient (6)
I believe the answer is:
cathay
'orient' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'a yacht wrecked in' is the wordplay.
'wrecked' indicates an anagram.
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'yacht' anagrammed gives 'cthay'.
'a' put within 'cthay' is 'CATHAY'.
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cathay that I've seen before include "China - antique" , "China long ago" , "Name for China in medieval Europe" , "Old word for China" , "Old name for China with a feline to start" .)