Air Apparent - the little yacht that just kept sailing
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5:42 AM Wed 20 May 2009 GMT
 | | 'Air Apparent drift over the 14 month period'
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Air Apparent, the small yacht abandoned off the north coast of New Zealand last year when the crew mutinied and set off a distress beacon, has been recovered by fishermen in north Queensland. It has taken more than a year to sail the distance alone.
The yacht was abandoned during a coastal trip in April last year when inexperienced crewmen grew alarmed in rising seas and set off the beacon in defiance of owner/skipper Bill Heritage. A helicopter was sent from Auckland, and Mr Heritage said he had no option but to abandon the boat with the three crewmen.
A full seven months later the little(7.0m) sailboat, unaided, had made it to Norfolk Island, where it was reported by the French Navy patrol ship La Moqueuse on a trip from Noumea to Nelson. It had made it alone 800 nm from where it was abandoned. The captain of the French vessel, Lieutenant Laurent Saunois, said the yacht was like a 'ghost ship'.
'When we found it, we called out, but nobody came. You always get a strange sensation when you find a boat like that, like something bad has happened,' Lieutenant Saunois said.
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