It looks like the mystery of the South African-crewed catamaran that disappeared around four months ago may have been solved, and unfortunately it isn’t good news for the families of the three men on board.

The Sunsail catamaran set off from Cape Town and was being delivered to Phuket, Thailand. The crew were last heard from on January 18, and today saw confirmation that a cargo vessel had seen the upturned hull of a catamaran about 1 078 kilometres off the coast of Mauritius last Thursday.

Jared Blows, spokesperson for the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Cape Town, had this to say to News24:

We were sent photos, but we can’t say for sure that it is the boat. They [the photos] aren’t very clear and were taken from some distance…

It is now a salvage operation, but we cannot get involved in that. We are still assisting locating the vessel.

Two of the three men on board, 58-year-old Anthony Murray and 59-year-old Reg Robertson, are said to be experienced yachtsmen with skipper Murray having delivered many yachts and catamarans over the years. The third crew member was 20-year-old Jaryd Payne.

Blows also confirmed that the area where the upturned catamaran was spotted is in line with where they believed it to have gone missing.

[source:news24]