Search for crew from yacht wrecked off Tonga 8

18 June 2012 - 1.00pm

Continuing high seas today have made it impossible to carry out the planned land-based search of the island of Late, west of Vava’u, Tonga, for two men missing since their yacht was wrecked on Thursday.

The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) will review conditions tomorrow (Tuesday) with a view to sending a team to search Late for the men.

RCCNZ Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator John Dickson said 3m swells continued today, making it impossible to safely land search teams.

“Conditions will be reviewed in the morning when we hope the swell will have abated,” he said.

Two full days of aerial and on-water searching have so far failed to locate the two Australian men, both in their sixties, who reported via a satellite phone call to a relative in Victoria, Australia, that they had run aground and their 50ft Bavaria yacht, Navillus, was breaking up.
An emergency locator beacon was activated at the same time, around 10.30pm on Thursday.

The yacht’s wreckage was found the next day but extensive on-water searching following drift modelling undertaken by RCCNZ, as well as an aerial search of over 191 square nautical miles by an RNZAF P3 Orion failed to find the men.

Rough seas for the last two days have prevented a land-based search.

The Police in Victoria are coordinating contact with the next of kin.

RCCNZ will not release the names of those involved.

This is the final update for today.  A further update will be issued at around 9am (NZ time) tomorrow (Tuesday).