Durban - The search for the missing catamaran, Sunsail, has taken a hi-tech turn after the Tomnod online project came on board this week.
Tomnod is a project owned by US-based satellite company DigitalGlobe that uses “crowd sourcing” to identify objects and places in satellite images.
It activated a “Lost Catamaran and Crew At Sea” campaign on its website to recruit members of the public, from all over the world, to join the online search party. The aim is to find the vessel that went missing en route from Cape Town to Thailand in January.
On board were skipper Anthony Murray, Reginald Robertson and Jaryd Payne, who last communicated with their families on January 18.
They were supposed to reach their destination on February 2, but have not been heard from since January.
The yacht was carrying supplies for 65 days and has now been at sea for 81 days.
“We are urging everyone to join. Being part of the search is free and anyone with access to the internet, even on the phone, can help us look for them,” said Matthew Thomas, an experienced yachtsman who is part of the search party.
This is the second South African-related campaign that Tomnod has activated. The first began on Sunday to identify burned buildings and roads blocked as a consequence of the Cape Town fires.
“They source satellite photographs from companies that own satellites and put them online so that members of the public can examine them to see if they can identify whatever object they are searching for. Clear images are requested from companies,” said Thomas.
Tomnod’s most famous campaign was the search for the Malaysia Airlines plane, Flight 370, that went missing last year. Tomnod took images gathered by their satellites and offered them to the public for viewing and identification.
More than 2.3 million people used the site to look for signs of wreckage, oil spills and other objects of interest.
Thomas said they had received a positive response to the campaign and were using Facebook so that they could recruit more people to join the search.
“Every effort counts and we want to narrow down the search area as soon as possible because at the moment we don’t know where the vessel might be, except that it is somewhere in the Indian ocean,” he said.
Sunsail’s co-ordinates at the time of the last communication were about 2 190 miles north-north-west of Perth, Australia, and as of Wednesday afternoon its emergency position indicating radio beacon had not been activated.
For more information visit www.tomnod.com or Searching for Anthony, Reg & Jaryd on Facebook.
The Mercury