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Search for missing yacht on East Cape


shanson

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/artic ... d=10632377

 

From NZ Herald...

 

Authorities have launched a search for a missing yacht and its sole occupant, who have failed to arrive in Gisborne on a voyage from Tauranga.

 

The Rescue Coordination Centre in Wellington said an aerial search began today for the 11-metre yacht Tafadzwa, which left Tauranga on Friday morning.

 

Search coordinator Keith Allen said the skipper called his partner on his cellphone about 1.30pm Friday but police were called when he failed to arrive at work yesterday.

 

A search plane carrying three observers left Hamilton at 10.30am to search the coast and ocean off the East Cape between Tauranga and Gisborne.

 

Mr Allen said they had not determined the extent of the search area, because they did not know how far offshore the yacht had sailed.

 

The yacht was well equipped with an emergency locator beacon and flares but the skipper has not responded to marine radio broadcasts. He had a VHF radio, but may not have it turned on.

 

Mr Allen said while today's forecast was for four-metre swells, there were greater concerns the yacht had been hit by the severe southerly storm which moved up the east coast on Friday night.

 

Article continues below

 

He said the naval vessel Manawanui was diverted early today to investigate reports of a flashing light in the Bay of Plenty, but it was a light attached to a long line.

 

- NZPA

 

:(

 

SHANE

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This sounds nearly as weird as that KazII occurance a couple of years ago.

Did anyone find out what happened to them?

 

Hope he turns up okay . . . :shock:

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Not sound good.

Perhaps it shows two points

1: Squid maybe right about not carrying and WPIRB, because if something has happened to this fellow, his has not gone off

2: If you do have an EPIRB, maybe a self releasing is important to have.

3: Perhaps it shows that you need your grab bag closer at hand than you would think.

Just thoughts, of course we don't know if he is in any real trouble yet.

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Here's some info and a report on Kaz II, yes very weird.

 

I hope this guy is ok, it's been pretty rough out there!

 

SHANE

 

Shane, where do I find the report and info on Kaz II ? :?:

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Bit of a tease aye! :lol:

 

Try here....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaz_II

 

There's a link to the official report at the bottom of the page.

 

I can't seem to find an update on the missing yacht tho. :(

 

SHANE

 

Not to mention Hakuna Matata

 

n July 2002, Dele and his girlfriend, Serena Karlan, sailed on the South Pacific Ocean along with skipper Bertrand Saldo on Dele's catamaran, the Hakuna Matata. Dele's brother, Miles Dabord (born Kevin Williams), was the only person involved in the voyage who was seen or heard from after July 8, when the party was in Tahiti. Dele and Karlan had previously kept regular contact with their banks and family members. On July 20, Dabord was by himself when he brought the boat into Tahiti.[3]

On September 5, police used a sting operation organized by Dele's family and friends to detain Dabord in Phoenix, Arizona. Dabord had forged his brother's signature in order to buy US$152,000 worth of gold under his brother's name. He had used Dele's passport as identification.[4] Mexican police later found that Dabord had been staying at a hotel in Tijuana, Mexico. Two days before, the Hakuna Matata, which had been registered in Tahiti under another name, was found off the coast of Tahiti with its name plate removed and some possible bullet holes patched. About the same time, Dabord phoned his and Dele's mother, Patricia Phillips, telling her that he would never hurt his brother and that he could not survive in prison.[5]

The FBI became involved in the investigation along with the French authorities and concluded that Dele, Karlan and Saldo were probably killed, and then thrown overboard, by Dabord. Given that the bodies were likely dumped in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, it would be highly unlikely that the three would ever be found.[4]

Dabord, the only major source of information regarding the case, intentionally overdosed on insulin and slipped into a coma. On September 27, 2002, he died in a California hospital. After Dabord's suicide, officials did not expect to find much more regarding the case. A memorial service was then held for both Dabord and Dele.

Dabord and Dele were frequently at odds with each other. After Dabord's death, his lawyer and life-long best friend, Paul White, was questioned regarding his client but gave little information about what happened. Dabord had said that he knew for sure that Dele and Karlan were in French Polynesia, but not much more other than that he was trying to help Dele.[4]

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doesn't sit too well with me that this search has been abandoned...

 

if I was out there I would prefer that somebody was still looking.

 

fact that boat had a water activated beacon which has not gone off suggests it could well be out there still. bar last friday weather has been okay. dropped rig, no rudder, upside down with no keel but floating. take your pick.

 

and when you search a large area once you are obviously not in a concentrated area for any period of time, so pretty easy to miss a vessel on a divergent course.

 

scary stuff if they draw the line at 3 days and walk away...

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I know this boat. Paul is a great guy. We sailed with this boat in Tonga in 2006, and enjoyed a few good nights on the booze.

 

The boat had a steel hull and was fairly strongly built. I seem to remember Paul sailed it from South Africa. Paul had done all the work himself on the boat and while it looked a bit rough on the outside all the systems appeared to be together.

 

He was pretty anti establishment if I recall correctly so he would probably be reluctant to call authorities for help and would probably sort a problem out himself and get his ass back to NZ.

 

Good Luck.

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3474840 ... -suspended

 

This is bugging me. The searh for a well found yatch with expereinced sailor is given up after a known extreme weather event (the Friday Southerly storm the that hit Wellington and continued North).

 

All previous reports from the NRCC said biasicaly "this in a bloody huge steel yacht, we can find him with radar. They showed photos of a chined hulled, slab sided steel yacth with a smiling, indepant sailor.

 

Radar search altidude is higher than visual search altidude (3,000ft v 500 ft). If he is in a life raft, and they are searching with radar, he is fucked.

 

I pay tax dollars to provide for a defence force to cover this eventuality. They have cancelled the search because there is no EPIRB signal. Bollocks I say. There is no requirement to carry EPRIB on a coastal voyage of this nature. We know he has departeted but not arrived. We know there has been an extreme weather event.

 

SEARCH SEARCH SEARCH!!!!!

 

Severn Warships steamed into Devonport in line astern last week (two Australian we don't have that many)

 

Stop prancing around the Hauraiki Gulf and head to East Cape, there is a man out there, find him.

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Yeah it's a real difficult one. First point, the RNZAF are very good at finding things out there, if it's there that is.

The second point is, the Search orginisation does have a limited budget.

And third point is, we only hear what these organisations do via very poor media reporting.

Trying to search with ships down at water level is very pointless. They simply do not have the "view" you think. Even when out there spotting illegal fishing vessels, the illegal vessel is usually spotted by air first.

It seems strange that a steel vessel can just vanish. Somehow I had in my mind it was reported as a wooden vessel. I figured that could meet a quick demise, but steel is so more unlikely. And I know it was a nasty weather event, but it was short lived and the sea at 4m is nothing for a vessel this size. If it has gone down, it must have been very abrubt. And if he was still out there, even way out there, dismasted, he would surely have made it back somewhere under jury rig by now. I think even under a make shift rig, he has run out of time.

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"Rose Noelle" springs to mind, It was "impossible" for her to end up where she ended S & R said. Steel boat, no flotsam found, Mast down? aerial stuffed? lets hope he has enough food, and hope he isn't badly injured.

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It sounds like the family are making a pitch to the SAR boys to continue the search but go further north. Apparently they've consulted various experts from around the world and believe they omitted to cover the most likely area he'd be in. See what happens next then.

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I do hope I am wrong. But even if they did miss him because they did not go North enough, would he not have made up for that by being back by now?? Unless he is incompasitated lying on the sole. Even then, it would have to be real bad as not to be able to drag yourself to a radio or EPIRB by now.

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There are plenty of scenario's as to what has happened. The two points that concern me are

1) 3 days is not a very long search, and now apparently in the wrong area, and

2) They have been relying on radar, i.e. assuming the boat is afloat.

 

This assumption was an issue off Wanganui (no h) when a fizz boat was overdue. Police SAR assumed they were looking for an overdue vessel. The vessel had sunk, the boy died just before dawn, in his fathers arms (very emotive example).

 

Apparenlty this guy was carrying a life raft and a kayak (not that a kayak will be a lot of help)

 

Sounds like they searched over the intended route, but not down wind of Tauranga or the intended route. Fairly noraml for a boat to run off to open sea when the weather packs up...

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Still no joy sadly.

 

But does anyone else find it interesting, yet somewhat spooky, that today they used high resolution satellite imagery of the NZ coastline supplied by the US Coastguard to try and find the boat?

 

Just what would US CG need obviously very very current, if not real time, high reso pics of our coastline for I wonder. Must be pretty high to pick up a yacht at sea.

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Yeah that's a little scary. As in the USCG has access to that thing at that resolution and in curent time? I thought only the MIB's had access to that. :shock:

 

But why the coastline. Wouldn't it be better looking at the Ocean area search didn't cover? Coastline could be covered by a small plane.

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