Family faced with declaring missing catamaran trio dead

DURBAN: Families whose loved ones were on the catamaran Sunsail that went missing in the Indian Ocean in January are now considering having the three men declared dead.

While they have not given up hope that they could still get answers about what happened to them, Philippa Savage, whose brother Anthony Mur- ray, 58, was captaining the vessel, said they had to face the hard reality that they were never coming back.

“It’s been hard, but the hope that they might have been stranded on an island somewhere diminishes each day,” she said.

Sunsail left Cape Town in December for a delivery trip to Thailand and the three yachtsmen – Murray, Durban’s Reg Robertson, 59, and Jaryd Payne, 25 – last made contact with their families on January 18.

In February an “all ships broadcast” seeking sightings reports was activated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. A month later a digital online global search campaign was launched by Tomnod, but none of the objects tagged by tens of thou- sands of participants were the missing yacht, identifiable debris or even a life raft.

Sunsail owners TUI Marine, the US-based world maritime leisure company, has sent a boat to search for the capsized hull of a boat spotted by a passing ship 600 nautical miles off Port Louis in Mauritius in May with hopes that it could be the one.

Savage said they were never going to find closure until they had a memorial for the men they loved, but that required them to first go to court to prove they were no longer alive so that they could be declared dead.

They suspected the trio could have been caught in a cyclone. Murray and Robertson were experienced sailors who could handle most challenges on the world’s oceans.