Friends know where missing yachtie washed overboard

The Tafadzwa was found by the crew of an Air Force Orion on a training flight but there was no sign of owner Paul Janse van Rensburg. Photo / NZ Defence Force

Friends of missing yachtie Paul Janse van Rensburg say they now know where he was washed overboard from his yacht but accept he is dead and have called off the search.

Mr Janse van Rensburg, 40, left Tauranga on March 12 for Gisborne, where he was due to begin a new job three days later.

His boat Tafadzwa was found on Sunday during a search and rescue training flight near the Chatham Islands. The 11 metre sloop was steering itself, its sails torn, with only the owner's dog on board.

The official search for the boat was suspended on March 18.

Friends and supporters of Mr Janse van Rensburg believe he was washed off the day he left Tauranga, probably as he reset the main sail to cope with worsening weather.

Friend Warwick Gowland said Mr Janse van Rensburg was almost certainly lost by the time Tafadzwa was spotted - if he had been on board, the yacht would not have been in the position in which it was seen.

"He should have changed path about eight hours before that."

Working on tidal flows, wind and sea conditions, friends now believe Mr Janse van Rensburg was washed off when he hit poor weather halfway between Cape Runaway on the eastern side of the Bay of Plenty and Hicks Bay, near East Cape.

"We have managed to pin it down to about an hour and a half when it happened," Mr Gowland said.

He said the evidence pointed to Mr van Rensburg putting a reef in his sail when he was washed off in a tragic accident

The yacht would have had its self-steering gear to take it past Cape Runaway and it would have continued to sail to the east.

Mr Gowland said they had exhausted all search options for the yachtie, which failed to reap any sightings in the Bay of Plenty and around the East Cape.

Mr Gowland said they would spend the next few days thanking the hundreds of search volunteers - from a seven-year-old boy on the East Coast who helped search the coastline near his home, to a Pauanui pilot who gave 10 hours flying time without a charge.

"After that there will be a grieving process, which will take quite some time," he said.

The South African family of the 40-year-old yachtie was believed to be arriving in Tauranga tomorrow.

- additional reporting NZPA