Durban -
The families of three missing yachtsmen are “ecstatic” after their request for a global, computer-based search party was accepted on Wednesday.
The campaign is being run on Tomnod.com and has been titled “Lost Catamaran & Crew At Sea”. It allows people all over the world to scour satellite images for signs of the missing Leopard 44 catamaran.
Experienced Durban yachtsmen Reginald Robertson and Anthony Murray, and Capetonian 20-year-old Jaryd Payne have been declared missing after they failed to arrive at their Phuket, Thailand, destination more than a month ago.
Since February 20, an urgent alert has gone out to maritime safety authorities in Australasia, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa.
Yacht owner, Tui Marine, has asked the US Navy 7th Fleet – which is in the area – to assist too.
Robertson’s daughter, Storme, who lives in Bournemouth, England, with her fiancé, Alex, said the activation of the Tomnod campaign was an achievement and said the families were elated it had been accepted.
“We are all ecstatic that they have accepted it finally. We have all been talking online to each other, and this is the best news we could have had today.”
Storme said she had not seen her father since April 2013 and lost contact with him on Christmas day when he sent a text message via satellite phone.
The message read: “Hi Storme and Alex, Merry Christmas, sailing nicely today, love Dad.”
Storme said her father had planned to rush back to South Africa as soon as they arrived in Phuket to see his son, Jared, who was in SA for the holidays.
“We remain positive and optimistic, I remember from the beginning when we heard that something might be wrong it was like the blood stopped in my veins.
“After that first shock I was freaked out, but I had to pull it together because anything could have happened, but we pray for the best,” she said.
“Just because we cannot hear from them, it does not mean they are not out there.”
Family adviser, Matthew Thomas, who was the search and rescue co-ordinator of the civilian search for the doomed Moquini – which capsized in 2005 in a yacht race between Mauritius and Durban – said they were already getting feedback from Tomnod as people were tagging what they thought could be related to their search.
He said it was a “possible lead” and said the search site would request more satellite images to verify the images.
“People are seeing things and are tagging, we are hoping we will find something. The families seem to be as upbeat as they could be, it’s not a nice scenario,” he said.
He said the boat’s Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) had still not been deployed. Were it to be activated, an immediate search and rescue would begin.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has informed the families that it responds to circumstances as they present themselves and that officers in its Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) are not constrained by the setting off of the EPIRB only.
It has further stated that the urgent broadcast to shipping will remain until March 31, when it will be re-evaluated.
The yacht was carrying enough supplies for 65 days and has now been at sea for 81 days. The three families are urging all South Africans and people around the world to join the online “Lost Catamaran & Crew At Sea” Tomnod search party.
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The crowd-sourcing effect
It is called crowd-sourcing. People around the world can join a global search party from their homes and study satellite images on the site for the missing yacht.
The three affected families said in a joint statement that the web-based tool worked in the belief that untrained observers could be as accurate as experts in picking up targets.
It simply takes a computer and internet access to join the online search.
Matthew Thomas, an experienced yachtsman who has been working with authorities on behalf of the families, said multiple tags would request higher resolution images which showed the target clearer.
This could ultimately lead to sea rescue being dispatched for a more co-ordinated, exact search.
Previous Tomnod campaigns include 2.3 million internet users who helped scan more than 24 000km2 of sea in the search for the doomed Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.
Tomnod was activated for the first time in South Africa three days ago to identify burnt buildings and roads in the devastating Cape Town fires.