Search for Missing Yachtsman Resumes
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Coast Guard announced Saturday that it would resume its search for a missing yachtsman because of his past successes in overcoming hardships at sea.
Michael Plant, who has sailed solo around the world three times, left New York on Oct. 16 for Les Sables--d’Olonne, France. He was due to arrive on Oct. 30 in preparation for a solo around-the-world race that begins from the French town today.
The last known contact with Plant, 42, was a signal from an automatic emergency beacon picked up on Oct. 27. The Coast Guard’s initial search for Plant and his 60-foot sloop was suspended Wednesday.
The yachtsman’s brother, Tom Plant, said the Coast Guard’s decision to resume the search came after a meteorologist, several world-class sailors and others drew up an alternative search area, based on the assumption that Plant may have continued, roughly on course, to France after the emergency signal.
A Coast Guard spokeswoman said the new search area is located about 550 miles northeast of the Azores.
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