A South African Air Force helicopter on Monday resumed its search for the Durban yacht Moquini and its six crew members reported missing on Friday.
”We are searching south-west of Madagascar today [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,” said Jacques Smit, search mission coordinator at the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Bellville, outside Cape Town.
He said the centre commissioned the C130 Hercules air-force aircraft that has 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.
Smit said a 460-megaherz emergency beacon from the Moquini was initially picked up by the centre’s counterpart in Argentina via satellite.
”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,” he said.
Smit said his centre then contacted the air force, which sent out an aircraft from the Waterkloof base in Pretoria.
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 has ”obviously put a damper on the race”.
He said other participants have been told of the Moquini‘s disappearance and they are 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 is the first time in the history of the race that an air search has had to be conducted for a yacht, although a crew member fell overboard and went missing a few years ago. — Sapa