Family and friends of the missing schooner Nina, whose crew of seven was last heard from in rough Tasman Sea conditions on June 4, have been fundraising to keep private search efforts alive.
Today, more than five months since the historic 85-year-old yacht left Opua in the Bay of Islands bound for Newcastle, Australia, a Piper Twin Comanche is due to take off from Norfolk Island to search an area west of Norfolk Island.
The official Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCCNZ) search found no trace of the 21m schooner, its wreckage, or any debris.
But family members organised another search, and after scouring thousands of satellite images, found a ghostly picture of a boat they are sure is the Nina.
A Facebook page, 'Holding Hope for the Nina', has been set up to co-ordinate the search efforts and raise funds for the search plane, which costs about US$20,000 (NZ$25,600) a day. They believe they have enough funds to search for the next few days.
The Nina is owned by professional captain David Dyche III, 58, and his wife, Rosemary, 60. They were on board with son David Dyche Jnr, 17, and fellow Americans Evi Nemeth, 73, Kyle Jackson, 27, and 18-year-old Danielle Wright. Also on board was Briton Matthew Wootton, 35.
The Wright family has travelled to Norfolk Island to join the search support crew, and act as spotters with the air crews.
The Wootton family are continuing to analyse the latest satellite images and calculating drift patterns and refuse to give up hope.
The Facebook page stresses: "We should all remember to NOT get stuck too hard looking for an object that is completely intact."
Searchers should be looking for a life raft alone, a life raft with other debris, an upright vessel, on its side, or upside down.
"If they had a catastrophic situation, they may have survived by tying a raft/dinghy to wreckage, a capsized vessel and or other debris," one posting says.
