Hope Still Held For Missing Yachtsmen

Parents of two Sydney men who sailed into the South Seas in a trimaran on June 28 last year and have not been heard of since have not given up hope that they are still alive. The men are Paul Cronan, 20 (extreme right), and Richard Sedgeman, 26 (second from right), photographed on the trimaran with relatives just before their departure.

“They may be stranded on some remote island somewhere and we could still hear from them,” Cronan's father told PIM in February.

But Mr. Cronan said he realised that with every passing week there was less hope that the two young men had survived.

Experienced yachtsmen hold out far less hope than Mr. Cronan.

They say it would be a miracle if Cronan and Sedgeman are still alive.

The two men had had no deepsea yachting experience when they took their home-made trimaran out of Sydney Harbour in the depth of winter and headed east. Their parents are not sure of their intended destination, their boat had not been tested for seaworthiness, and its only auxiliary power was an outboard motor.

No attempt to locate the men was made until Mr. and Mrs. Cronan notified the authorities six months after their departure. The RNZAF then made a fruitless radio check to Tonga, Pago Pago, New Zealand, Norfolk Island, the Kermedecs, Rarotonga, Apia, Aitutaki and Tahiti.

Australian laws do not require yachtsmen to report their departure or to submit their vessels to official seaworthiness tests. So there is nothing to stop inexperienced crews in unseaworthy boats heading for what is virtually certain death.