Missing yachtie near Chathams?

Press, 12 June 1989, Page 1

Missing yachtie near Chathams?

BY

NIGEL MALTHUS

The seas around the Chatham Islands should be searched for the missing Christchurch yachtsman, Mr Gregory Lawn, says a sailing companion, Mr Basil Fitzpatrick, of Rangiora.

Mr Lawn sailed from Napier on May 23 in his recently acquired 9m sloop Maranique, but failed to arrive at Lyttelton. Fears have heightened for the solo yachtsman after a lifebelt from the vessel was found on the Mahia Peninsula on June 1. A helicopter search of the peninsula coastline on Saturday failed to find any other sign. Mr Fitzpatrick said yesterday that a lifebelt could easily have been lost overboard by accident, and had the yacht broken up or sank other debris would have drifted ashore.

Mr Fitzpatrick, who has known Mr Lawn for about 12 years and has sailed with him “countless” times, said that he did not like to change tack often, but would sail long runs and always put well out to sea.

"Tacking southerly or perhaps south-east during all that bad weather (a series of southerly blows on May 25, 26 and 27)

would certainly put him well east. He could be south of the Chathams,” he said. Mr Lawn was not a person to panic, and Mr Fitzpatrick believed the Maranique was “pretty solid,” but he was worried about Mr Lawn’s bad back — fractured in an accident five years ago — and the possibility of hypothermia.

Mr Fitzpatrick had sent a fax message to search and rescue authorities on Saturday giving his assessment of where the yacht might be. He believed a search should be mounted around the Chathams. Search and rescue officials will not mount a big air search, however, without more definite information on the yacht’s likely whereabouts.

. A spokesman at the national Search Co-ordination Centre, Mr Roly Bailey, said that the centre had not been called in, and •would not be unless the police considered it necessary. He believed from news reports, however, that the yacht could be anywhere between the Chathams and Fiji, “which is a fair amount of area to cover.”