Hunt ends for missing catamaran crew of 3

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – The Coast Guard suspended its search Saturday for three missing crewmen from the wreckage of a 44-foot catamaran that was found washed ashore Friday at Lincoln City.

The body of an unidentified male was found about 1 p.m. Saturday on a beach about five miles north of Coast Guard Station Siuslaw River in Florence, but nothing at the site indicated the man was part of the catamaran’s crew, officials said.

Authorities were trying to identify the body.

A Coast Guard helicopter and a C-130 Hercules flew search patterns Saturday from 5 a.m. to 3 p.m., but crews did not spot any signs of survivors from the catamaran, according to a Coast Guard spokesman in Seattle.

A logbook recovered from the wreck showed the last entry at 3 a.m. Dec. 11 about 10 miles from Cape Blanco.

The entry indicated the crew had lowered the vessel’s sails and deployed two anchors.

The vessel’s emergency radio beacon was found locked inside a box aboard the boat and unable to float free of the vessel in the event of an emergency, the spokesman said.

The Coast Guard has not released the names of the catamaran crew or its owner in Renton, Wash., who had hired the crew to bring the boat from South Africa to Seattle for a boat show.

The vessel was last seen leaving San Francisco on Dec. 8 and was due last Friday at Port Townsend, Wash.