Radio signals might be from missing yacht

Press, 18 February 1980, Page 1

Radio signals might be from missing yacht

PA Auckland Weak radio signals picked ,up in Auckland last evening may have been from the missing North Island race yacht Cassandra. . Devonport Yacht Club race organisers believe they heard the faint words “Cassandra” and “Devonport sport” while trying to get in touch with the 9.4 metre sloop. The club commodore, Mr B. D. Holmes, said afterwards: “We still think that the Cassandra in afloat and still out there somewhere.” . The Cassandra, crewed by two Auckland men, E. H. Howe and C. N. North, was last heard from last Thursday when she was

south-west of Cape Maria Van Diemen. ; .Club s*embers spent seven hours, in an aircraft yesterday searching for the Cassandra from the Kaipara Harbour, on the west coast, around the tip of the North Island to Mangonui Harbour on the east coast where 11 yachts of the race fleet were sheltering. The Devonport Yacht ■ Club, which is organising the race, had two club members on board the plane as spotters. They had been satisfied that the Cassandra Was not sheltering in the Northland area, said Mr Holmes. The next move would be decided this morning by the search and rescue organisation, he said. The other 30 yachts tak-

ing part, in the race have now been accounted Tor. •Mr Holmes .. .emphasised , That the club did not fear for the safety of ,the Cassandra and-her;two crew. The 12-year-bld wooden yacht was ;7“a very, very vessel,” he said, and had travelled thousands of miles on ■ ocean passages. s “We are quite happy in : our own minds that she was even better-equipped than required,” he said. On board the craft is an emergency locator beacon, and aircraft have been asked to keep a watch for any signal from such a beacon. Ships also . have been asked to look out for the Cassandra. ■’ • Both the crew members were very® experienced yachtsmen, he said.

Mr Holmes also defend-*;, ed the actions of the; yachtsmen w’ho put out from Mangonui Harbour, saying weather forecasts had not prepared them for the difficult weather they' actually met. Had the skippers known beforehand the winds and seas they would face, he said, most would probably; have remained in Mang-;, onui. Decisions of this sort; were entirely in the hands of individual skippers, > While 11 yachts remained at Mangonui yesterday, where they have been for' the last week, the other competitors were spread' out between there and the Marlborough Sounds, at the finish of the second section of the race. v?