Search widens for yachtsman missing off east coast

Fears are growing for the safety of a yachtsman who was due back on land three days ago, after setting off to begin a new life in Gisborne.

Paul Van Rensburg, 40, set sail from Tauranga on Friday in his 11m yacht Tafadzwa with his dog Juanita.

He was relocating to Gisborne to be closer to his partner between his civil engineering projects.

The experienced sailor's last contact was at 1.30pm on Friday, when he called his partner from his cellphone.

When he failed to appear at work on Monday, she alerted authorities. They have been searching for the single-mast sloop since 5pm that day.

Two search-and-rescue planes covered 153,000sq km yesterday without sighting the yacht.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion and a twin-engined PA31 aircraft equipped with radar and three trained observers searched the southern mouth of the Bay of Plenty, before conducting a wider search, which spanned from the East Cape to the Coromandel Peninsula.

Search and rescue mission coordinator Keith Allen said the search would resume today, and was expected to extend to 320km offshore.

Mr Allen said there were some reasons for optimism - the yacht's steel hull made it a good target for radar and was unlikely to break up, searchers had found no wreckage or signs of difficulty, and his water-activated emergency beacon had not been set off.

There was a chance the yachtsman had become incapacitated by a medical condition, which would explain his failure to set off the beacon, Mr Allen said.

Tauranga Bridge Marina manager Tony Arnold said Mr Van Rensburg had spent most weekends on his yacht since arriving in Tauranga from South Africa in 2006. He was a highly competent boatsman who had sailed the Tafadzwa to New Zealand from his homeland, as well as on trips to Fiji and other islands.