Search on for Dbn yacht

2005-09-19 13:53

Durban - A South African Airforce helicopter on Monday resumed its search for the Durban yacht Moquini and its six-crew members reported missing on Friday.

Jacques Smit, search mission co-ordinator at the Maritime Rescue Co-Ordination Centre in Cape Town, said: "We are searching southwest of Madagascar on Monday.

"There's no hard or fast rule how long we'll continue or when we should call it off because for now we're still positive."

He said they had commissioned the C130 Hercules airforce aircraft, which had been searching the Indian Ocean from Madagascar since last week.

The Moquini was participating in the Mauritius to Durban yacht race when it lost contact with the race organisers last week.

'Beacon is registered'

Smit said their counterparts in Argentina, via satellite, initially picked up a 460-megaherz emergency beacon from the Moquini.

He said: "It was probably the first station available to pick up the signal.

"They knew who it was because the beacon is registered and those receiving it can get information of the vessel, the crew and a possible contact person.

"When they saw it was out of their range they contacted us."

Smit said his centre then contacted the airforce that sent out an aircraft from the Waterkloof base in Pretoria.

Sending out radio signals

Meanwhile, race organiser Dave Claxton said the inability to get in touch with skipper Graham Cochrane and his crew members, Mark Dickerson, Sheldon Dickerson, Kurt Ostendorf, Neil Tocknell and teenager Michael Goolam had "obviously put a damper on the race".

He said other participants had been told of the Moquini's disappearance and they were all looking out and sending out radio signals in an effort to find the missing yacht.

Claxton said the family members of the missing crew "are under a lot of strain, but there is an excellent support system and we get together often and talk it through".

He said it was the first time in the history of the race that an air search had to be conducted for a yacht, although a crew member fell overboard and went missing a few years ago.

- SAPA