Hunt for missing yachtie intensifies

A second plane has joined an Air Force Orion in the hunt for a yacht missing after leaving Tauranga for Gisborne on Friday morning.

The 11-metre Tafadzwa, skippered by South African Paul Van Rensburg, was reported overdue on Monday, when he failed to turn up for work in Gisborne.

This afternoon a twin-engined PA31 joined a P3 Orion which has been searching for the yacht since Monday.

"We've got two excellent search assets out there and they are systematically working through the search plans that we've developed for them," Search and Rescue Centre mission coordinator Keith Allen said.

"By the end of the day we expect the two aircraft to have covered around 44,000 square miles (153,000 square kilometres)."

Rescue authorities are concerned that the yacht may have been hit by the strong southerly storm which swept up the east coast at the weekend.

Mr Van Rensburg, 40, has so far failed to answer VHF radio calls but that could be because he was out of range or he may not have his radio turned on, the centre said.

Mr Van Rensburg is an experienced yachtie but may have under-estimated how much time it would take to get to Gisborne.

He sailed to New Zealand from South Africa in 2006, and works for an engineering firm around the country.

His yacht was usually moored at Tauranga, but he was understood to be moving it to Gisborne, where his girlfriend is based.

- NZPA