Pensioner misplaced at sea as lacking yacht discovered empty 50 miles off Welsh coast

An aged sailor is believed to have gone lacking at sea after a rescue staff positioned his yacht with nobody on board some 50 miles off the Welsh coast.

Duncan Lougee, 70, set sail from Plymouth aboard his yacht The Minke on 18 June, however there was no communication or whereabouts of him ever since.

Mr Lougee’s intention was to achieve Baltimore, Ireland on 22 June as a part of the Jester Challenge.

On June 29, an Irish fishing vessel sighted the yacht. Milford Haven Coastguard requested the launch of the Angle all-weather lifeboat to assist within the multi-agency search and restoration, protecting a spherical journey of 110 miles.

The lifeboat headed in direction of the Minke, positioned 50 miles west of St Anne’s Head in Pembrokeshire.

Meanwhile, an Irish coastguard helicopter, Rescue 117, arrived on the scene and a winchman descended onto the yacht.

It was confirmed that the boat was unoccupied.

After the lifeboat arrived, two crew members boarded the vessel to examine it for any info relating to the final identified place of Mr Lougee.

A spokesperson for Angle Lifeboat RNLI mentioned: “At this point, R117 from Ireland left and was replaced by Coastguard Rescue Helicopter R924 from Newquay, Cornwall,” mentioned 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, the place they handed it over to the Padstow lifeboat crews for the return journey to Padstow harbour.