Searchers hope two missing yachtsmen might survive in dinghy [1]
Saturday, June 16, 2012 - 17:06. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Debris with the name of a missing yacht was found in Tongan waters this morning according to marine-radio reports coming from boats searching waters around Late, a small isolated volcanic island, south west of Vava'u, Tonga.
However, the radio reports have yet to be confirmed with the search teams who are still searching with about one hour of light left before they must return to port.
But it is believed that the crew of the yacht "Escapade" found a named piece of the missing yacht "Navillus" and that the bow had been sighted.
Janine Le Strange of the Hakula Lodge and fishing charters in Vava'u, said that the search boats had left Neiafu this morning to continue their search.
She said that there was still hope that the men might be surviving in the dinghy that was thought to have been on the yacht.
"It seems that someone reported that they saw the dinghy on the bow of the boat when it was leaving the harbour, and the searchers have found part of the bow but there was nothing on it," she said. "If the two people on board had time to phone home then they might have had time to deploy the dinghy," she said. "The emergency locator beacon went off after that."
She believed that the searchers had found no one in the water and had sounded horns at the unihabited Late island to try and attract the attention of anyone who might have got ashore there.
Reports over the last two days from Maritime New Zealand, which is conducting the search, state that two men are missing after their 50ft yacht ran aground in Tonga on Thursday night. One is an Australian. The men had made satellite calls home to a relative in Victoria late on Thursday to report the yacht was aground and breaking up.
On Friday, a New Zealand Air Force Orion aircraft and two fishing boats from Vava'u located the yacht's hull as well as debris.
Sail World reports the yacht to be the "Navillus" and is understood to have been en route from the Caribbean to Bundaberg.