Published 15 years ago, updated 6 years ago

Friends and family of missing solo yachtsman Paul Janse van Rensburg, who has not been found after more than two weeks at sea, have not given up hope he will be found.

Paul, with his dog, left Tauranga for Gisborne on his 36-foot sloop “Tafadswa” on the morning of Friday 12th March 2010 and should have reached Gisborne, about 300km away, in a few days.

The New Zealand Rescue Co-ordination Centre instigated a search for “Tafadswa” on 16 March after family and friends had reported that Janse van Rensburg was a day overdue. The search covered 328,000 square kilometres, however no trace of Janse van Rensburg or Tafadzwa was found, and the search was suspended on March 18.

Family and Friends still believed that “Tafadswa” was out there, and indeed the yacht was spotted by a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion on a training flight, about 110km west of the Chatham Islands, on Sunday 28 March.

Early yesterday (Monday 29 March), two fishermen boarded the yacht finding the dog alive but no sign of Janse van Rensburg.

A media release by Maritime New Zealand quoted the Rescue Co-ordination Centre’s Geoff Lunt as saying Janse van Rensburg appeared to have fallen overboard, as his life raft, dinghy, emergency beacon and kayak were still on the yacht.

Friends of missing yachtie Paul van Rensburg say they will do everything within reason to try to find their mate, who they believe could still be alive, possibly on a pocket of land near the Chatham Islands.

Paul’s friend, Warwick Gowland, said a core group of about six searchers would plot a course today to search for Mr van Rensburg. They were planning to check “every bit of land area” using boats, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. “We’re going to carry on and do what is within plausible reason so that we can officially say that we’ve done all we can rather than stop before that point,” Mr Gowland said.

Taken from reports by the Cape Times and Stuff.co.nz