[imagesource:wonderai]

A Cape Town couple who co-owns a yacht with a group of friends are relieved after their vessel, which had been stolen in Croatia in June, was found moored at a Brazillian yacht club.

The yacht went missing from a Croatian dock on 14 July after the Hale family had spent a holiday on board. The local police, Interpol, as well as a reward, failed to turn up the boat. Even their insurance company went so far as to hire a private investigator to search for the missing Mischief, but this also came to nought as the yacht was nowhere to be found.

Thanks to another South African couple who had been sailing around the area, Mischief was spotted in Natal, off the Brazilian coast.

“We were contacted by an SA couple who have been sailing around the area. They had followed posts on my social media pages, where I asked people to keep a lookout for the vessel and recognised the boat by the features listed on our post.

“At first, we had quite a number of people send us messages saying they spotted the yacht, but nothing came of it,” said Hale. “It then started to seem like this new information we were getting was legit and that our yacht had eventually been found. It was very exciting and overwhelming to know that Mischief was finally found.”

The couple who found the yacht took several pictures and contacted the owners to enquire about any specific features that may identify the yacht. The couple were then able to confirm that the yacht they sighted was indeed the missing Mischief.

“At this stage, we don’t know what the yacht was stolen for. The case is currently under police investigation, and we are allowing them to do their work without interruptions,” said the Hales.

“It still blows my mind that no one could spot the yacht after it disappeared, but we are very grateful to the yachting community for being such an amazing support structure.”

According to online sources, the yacht – a Hanse 588 – sells for about R12 million.

[source:news24]