- From: AAP Breaking News
- July 05, 20138:32PM
- THE search has been called off for the American schooner Nina which went missing with seven people on board in the Tasman Sea.
The 21m sailing vessel was travelling from Opua in the Bay of Islands to Newcastle in
Australia on May 29 with six Americans and one British man aboard.
It struck winds up to 110km/h and 8m swells and has not been heard from since June 4.
Extensive searching over the past 11 days of an area more than eight times the size of
New Zealand has failed to find any trace of the schooner.
No more searching is planned unless new information comes to light,
Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand operations manager John Seward said on Friday.
But
radio broadcasts will continue to be made in New Zealand and
Australia in the search for new information, he said.
Those on the Nina are David Dyche III, 58, and wife, Rosemary, 60, their son David Dyche IV, 17, friend Evi Nemeth, 73, Kyle Jackson, 27, Danielle Wright, 18, and Briton Matthew Wootton, 35.
The vessel is equipped with a
satellite phone, a
tracking device and an
emergency beacon that has not been activated.