New search urged for Veronica

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33942, 8 September 1975, Page 2

New search urged for Veronica

Relatives and friends of the crew of the missing ketch Veronica renewed their efforts over the week-end to have another air search made for the yacht.

Searchers, they said, had been looking in the wrong place for the 28ft ketch, which is almost a fortnight overdue on a delivery voyage from Gisborne to Dunedin.

They feel that another air search should be made north and east of Banks Peninsula to the East Cape area, already covered by searching R.N.Z.A.F. aircraft, because the Veronica could have drifted much further than the Search and Rescue Organisation’s navigation experts calculated.

The Veronica, crewed *by her owner, Mr R. W. Hay, of Dunedin, and two experienced Auckland yachtsmen, Commander R. G. Hoskyn

and Mr W. G. Cornthwaite, left Gisborne on August 16 and has not. been seen since. Mr J. R. Ross, a friend of Mr Cornthwaite, said that weather conditions would put the Veronica • right in the north-east corner of- the area searched, even allowing for conservative drift predictions, according to a Press Associa- ' tion message from Auckland. If the Veronica had drifted ' at three knots, she would be well outside the area. ’DRIFT POSSIBLE’ If the searchers put the same method of operation into action further north in the right area, they would have a better chance of finding them. “If they did that, friends and relatives of the crew would be satisfied that everything has been done,” said Mr Ross. Mr H. H. Pope, of Kumeu, who is in the business of delivering yachts, was also critical of the search made for the Veronica. To limit the search to 250 miles off the coast was “ridiculous,” he said. Two members of the crew were experienced men, but the craft could still get into trouble. “The Veronica could easily have drifted 700 miles off course, and considerably further than the area searched,” said Mr Pope. Discontinuing the search, and asking aircraft and ships to keep a look out was paramount to saying: “You’ve had it,” he said. INQUIRY SOUGHT A magisterial inquiry into Search and Rescue Organisation ‘ procedures, after alleged bungling by the authorities over the search, has been called for by the Sumner Lifeboat Institution and the wife of the owner of the Veronica. “The axe should fall and heads should roll if nothing comes out of this,” said Mrs Mary Hay from her Dunedin home on Saturday. She also wants “the search resumed immediately. “I will move heaven and high water to get the search going again,” she said. Ships on New Zealand’s east coast have been asked to keep a look out for the ketch. The Ministry’s nautical adviser (Captain E. G. Boyack) said last night that the situation will be reviewed tomorrow when officials discuss the search. Captain Boyack said that there was little chance of the air search being resumed.