Still Hope For Missing Trimaran

Created by doina. Last modified on 2005-08-03 14:18:11
Countries: Cook Islands, New Zealand

Australian Gary Cull and his New Zealand girlfriend Verona Hunt left Nelson on the South Island of New Zealand in 12.6m trimaran Manoah on June 8 for a trip to the Cook Islands that should have taken about five weeks. They were heard from once, the day after they left, but there has been no sign of them since. A search was carried out over 100,000 square nautical miles of ocean before being called off.

Rescuers still remain hopeful, remembering trimaran Rose Noelle which capsized in a storm east of Napier on June 4, 1989, and drifted upside-down for 119 days before washing up on Great Barrier Island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf, with all four crewmembers surviving.

The yacht's EPIRB has not been activated but they did not have a high frequency transmitter and could not call for help if the EPIRB was damaged. It also had a very high frequency radio but that had only a short-distance, line-of-sight range. Rescue authorities will maintain radio calls in the area in the hope someone may have seen them.