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BRISBANE - The daughters of three sailors who vanished in bizarre circumstances from a yacht off the Queensland coast are flying from Perth to join a family search for the men.
There has been no trace of skipper Derek Batten and brothers Peter and James Tunstead, all from Perth, since their catamaran Kaz II was found adrift 160km north-east of Townsville on April 18.
They had left from Airlie Beach's Shute Harbour on a journey to Perth.
When their yacht was discovered, computers were still running, food was laid out at the table, safety equipment was on board and there was no sign of how the men disappeared.
Although searches have been called off by authorities, nine family members have continued to look, spending tens of thousands of dollars hiring planes, helicopters and boats to search for the missing men on nearby islands.
Batten's niece, Hope Himing, today said three of the sailors' daughters were to join the search, which would continue until at least early next week.
"The whole team is obviously exhausted, because they've been searching from sun-up to sun-down," Himing said.
"Three guys are having to come back (to Perth) for work, but three of the daughters are flying over to Townsville at the moment to join the search, and it's been decided that the search is going to continue up to the end of the weekend."
Other family members in Perth are also considering joining the search, she said.
"Nobody has given up believing that there's a chance that they could be found," Himing said of the missing trio.
Members of the private search party will this afternoon meet with Townsville police to go over the facts of the sailors' disappearance.
"There's so much information that seems have got mixed up," Himing said.
"I think they're really just going over the exact facts and the viability of actually finding someone."
In recent days the search effort had focused on a stretch of coastland unreachable by car, Himing said, around Gloucester Island, south of Townsville.
Walking groups have been scouring the region's mangroves in the hope the sailors had washed up on the coast.
- AAP
