A pensioner is thought to be lost at sea after a Welsh rescue crew located his missing yacht some 50 miles off the Welsh coast. Duncan Lougee, 70, had set sail from Plymouth on board his yacht The Minke headed towards Ireland.
Mr Lougee was on his way to Baltimore and was due to arrive on June 22, via the Isles of Scily, as part of the Jester Challenge. But there has been no contact with Mr Lougee since his day of departure on June 18.
An Irish fishing vessel spotted the yacht on Thursday, June 29 and the Angle all-weather lifeboat was requested to launch by Milford Haven Coastguard to assist with the multi-agency search and recovery on the 110-mile round trip. While it made the trip to the Minke, 50 miles west of St Anne’s Head in Pembrokeshire, an Irish coastguard helicopter, Rescue 117, had arrived on scene and a winchman was lowered onto the yacht, which had been overdue for six days. He was able to confirm that nobody was onboard.
Following the lifeboat’s arrival on scene, two crew members went onboard to inspect the vessel for any information that may have indicated the last known position of the casualty.
“At this point, R117 from Ireland left and was replaced by Coastguard Rescue Helicopter R924 from Newquay, Cornwall,” said a spokesperson for Angle Lifeboat RNLI. “Due to the nature of the incident and the extent of the search area, a coastguard search plane, Rescue 51 had also been tasked and was now on scene closely followed by Coastguard Rescue Helicopter R187 from St Athan.
“With our crew members now onboard, new information was found indicating the last recorded position of the occupant. With the lifeboat out of VHF range, this information was passed to Rescue 51 for relay to Falmouth Coastguard and, following their discovery, all search assets were stood down as the new search area had shifted significantly south.”
The Angle lifeboat crew towed the yacht south and were met by Padstow lifeboat crews who then proceeded to tow the yacht back to Padstow harbour.
Mr Lougee from Colchester, Essex, remains a missing person and Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed the search has been called off.
Detective Inspector Daniel Massey said: “Yacht Minke has been brought to shore and is currently docked in Padstow Harbour. We continue to liaise with partners including The Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Marine Accident Investigation Branch, and The Coroner’s Office in relation this matter.
“Whilst Mr Lougee remains officially a missing person, responsibility of searches in open water sits with the Coastguard. However, yacht Minke has been missing since it left Plymouth on Sunday 18 June, and initial enquires appear to show no fresh entries in the ships journal for at least nine days.
“Therefore, due to the potentially vast and prohibitive area of search at sea, at this time there is currently no new searches planned by Coastguard.”
A spokesperson from HM Coastguard said: ““Extensive searches were carried out and coordinated by HM Coastguard and the yacht found. The search was terminated once it became clear that the period of survivability had passed.”
DI Massey added: “This matter will remain under review and if any fresh information comes to light, this will be assessed accordingly. We have informed the family of these initial updates and our thoughts are with them at this time; the family of Duncan Lougee have asked for privacy.”
