Missing UK yacht: No sign of Cheeki Rafiki - US Coast Guard

US Coast Guard Capt Anthony Popiel: "Unfortunately, we've had no sightings"

Four British men remain missing after search teams reported no sightings of a life-raft from the yacht at the centre of an international hunt.



US Coast Guard Capt Anthony Popiel said no decision had been taken on when to suspend the search of the mid-Atlantic.



The 40ft Cheeki Rafiki, based in Southampton, was sailing back to the UK from an Antigua regatta when it started taking on water last week.



The search was originally called off on Sunday but resumed on Tuesday.



That followed an official request to US authorities from the UK government. An online petition, set up to urge the US Coast Guard to resume the search, had attracted more than 200,000 signatures.





Coastguards said on Wednesday that around 9,000 sq miles had been searched and there had as yet been no sightings of a life-raft, debris or a boat during the latest search.



Capt Popiel pledged that teams would continue to hunt for the Britons as if they were "looking for a member of our own family".



The four missing crew members are Paul Goslin, 56, from West Camel, Somerset; skipper Andrew Bridge, 22, from Farnham, Surrey; Steve Warren, 52, also from Somerset; and 22-year-old James Male, from Romsey.



The search is set to continue into Thursday when an RAF Hercules, deployed from RAF Brize Norton on Wednesday morning, will conduct its first full scan of the search area.



Three planes and six ships have already been deployed to search the area where the sailors are thought to have disappeared, approximately 1,000 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

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