Search called off

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Les Hall

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yacht missing in mid-Atlantic
By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published May 19, 2014

A search for four Britons missing in the Atlantic Ocean after their sailboat capsized some 1,000 miles east of Cape Cod last Thursday was called off on Monday, officials say.

The crew of the Cheeki Rafiki was returning from Antigua Sailing Week in the Caribbean when the 40-foot vessel started taking on water amid poor weather conditions on Thursday. UK charter company Stormforce Coaching said it was “devastated" that the search ended without locating the four sailors.

“We remain devastated that … Andrew, James, Paul and Steve have still not been found and that the U.S. Coast Guard has suspended the search," Doug Innes, Stormforce's director, said in a statement obtained by FoxNews.com. “We remain hopeful that they are in the life raft, although conditions have been poor in the Atlantic, which would be very challenging for them."

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/0...ons-on-40-foot-yacht-missing-in-mid-atlantic/

A while ago we had a discussion about a couple with two very young children who set sail for an extended cruise. Both were relatively inexperienced and the boat was less than pristine. These guys were all experienced. Just goes to show what can happen out there.
 
Sad news indeed for family and friends and most all mariners.
There was one mention of a locater beacon , but reading the above decision may indicate the battery must have been depleted when the search was ended. Even if initially in a raft , 15' storm seas and 50+kt wind conditions is not good at all.

1000nm out and same back does not allow for much in the way of expensive search flight time. That's very roughly 1/3 from Cape Cod to the UK I believe. Mybe still a chance a ship could find someone?
 
I guess one thing to be learned here, if you deploy your epirb, as they did (sounds like they had more them one) it should be secured to the life raft, or life jacket. Mine has a string on a roll just for that purpose.
 
I didn't read the entire article are they saying the crew deployed a 406 EPIRB and they weren't located, was the EPIRB located?
Strange, Bill
 
quote:
Originally posted by timmotel

I guess one thing to be learned here, if you deploy your epirb, as they did (sounds like they had more them one) it should be secured to the life raft, or life jacket. Mine has a string on a roll just for that purpose.

Click to expand...
Our 2 also have tie strings and our PLB's are affixed to out Mustangs which we always wear while cruising.
Bill
 
They found the hull of the boat so I assume the EPIRB was on the boat, not in the raft.
 
http://news.yahoo.com/coast-guard-hull-missing-british-yacht-found-200905616.html Hull found. Missing keel. Rudder damaged. No souls aboard.
 
Missing keel... Explains why the raft want deployed. Sad.
 
I helped the USCG the other night relaying clearances for them from Gander as well as New York Oceanic as they could not get HF signals while they were searching for this boat (call sign CG Rescue 2002). The CG guys were really working it hard. I cannot imagine being down low using night vision trying to get a bead on this boat. A lot of risk there and I don't think that is what people understand. The cost is bad enough but amateurs fail to realize that when it all goes wrong, someone has to incur a lot of risk to rescue them and that is not right.
 
Sad that we ask the USCG to risk their life but we can't afford to provide them with satcom.
 
It was a C-130 advanced and I think he might have had SAT but he said he was having to do a reset on all his radios. I did not inquire because it would take too much time, but I had the impression his antenna lost lock. A SAT antenna system on an airplane has to have at least one nav reference unit aligned to operate and often the data link between the IRUs and the SAT system gets messed up. Then you have to power the whole thing down and bring it back up. That takes some time. In any event I called on HF for him and relayed to him on VHF.
 
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