A British sailor is missing after his yacht was found 'eviscerated' during a storm in the Bay of Biscay. Divers found no sight of the year-old man after his distress beacon was set off around 50 miles from Lacanau in Gascony at 3pm on Saturday. A French Air Force helicopter spotted the Tiger PA, a metre yacht sailing under an American flag, but it was later found to be empty. According to the Vesselfinder website, a yacht with the same name was last located in Weymouth, Dorset, last week.
French government body Atlantic Maritime Prefecture said they had received an alert from their British counterparts on Friday evening because the yacht was not responding to radio messages. They then located the watercraft in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of south-west France , and a Portuguese cargo ship 'managed to make radio contact after several attempts'. The man 'of British nationality' was alone on board and had indicated he was 'safe and continuing on his way', the prefecture said.
But on Saturday evening, divers were winched down to the yacht and found no sign of him. A French Air Force helicopter spotted the Tiger PA, a metre yacht sailing under an American flag, but it was later found to be empty file image. A separate Portuguese cargo ship, a Spanish hospital ship that treats fishermen at sea and a French navy maritime surveillance aircraft joined in on the search, which was called off on Sunday,.
These difficult conditions caused a French sailing boat to capsize close to the coast off the Atlantic resort of Les Sables-d'Olonne and the sailor was rescued by a surfer. Meanwhile, six people got into trouble in kayaks off Saint-Nazaire, Brittany before being rescued by French lifeboats in 55mph winds. The maritime prefecture issued a warning about the dangers of the sea 'in the winter period with many depressions'. The race usually finishes in Les Sables-d'Olonne, but conditions were so dangerous that competitors were told to head for calmer waters off La Rochelle before completing the race on Monday.
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