June 16, 2012
WELLINGTON (AFP) - The search for an Englishman and an Australian missing from their yacht off the coast of Tonga was focused on a remote island Saturday following a fruitless sea search, rescue officials said.
The two men, both in their sixties, were sailing from the Caribbean to Australia when they radioed for help late Thursday after their 50-foot (15-metre) yacht ran aground off the island of Late in the South Pacific.
A New Zealand Air Force Orion has located the wreckage of the yacht, but a spokeswoman for the New Zealand Rescue Coordination Centre, which is organising the search, said there was no sign of the two men.
"The conditions were good and the searchers are confident they would have seen the men if they had been within the search area," Tracy Brickles said.
"Today, the aircraft will focus on the island to see if the men have reached the shoreline."
Survival time in the water was only 36 hours, but would be longer if lifejackets were worn, Brickles said.
