The tragic loss of the yacht Cheeki Rafiki 

There are no words that can lessen the heartache for the family and friends of James Male, Paul Goslin, Andrew Bridge and Steve Warren now that the hopes for a rescue have come to an end.

There have been astonishing accounts of sailors surviving adrift at sea in liferafts and there was conviction that the four men could do the same. By all accounts they were coping with the ingress of water and were monitoring the situation. When disaster struck there was still considerable optimism for their wellbeing because emergency beacons were triggered and it was widely believed that the men had taken to their liferaft.

United States, Canadian and RAF aircraft, assisted by a number of merchant and recreational vessels searched thousands of square miles of sea for signs of the crew and their liferaft, but ultimately found only the upturned hull of Cheeki Rafiki. We now know that when the hull was inspected, the liferaft was still in its place on board and the search was finally called off. Any hope that James, Paul, Andrew and Steve might have survived and been found was shattered.

There is comfort that the families’ efforts to persuade the US Coastguard to restart the search received such massive support from the public, but the loss of James, Paul, Andrew and Steve will understandably cause their families inconceivable sorrow. This is not the time for speculation about what went wrong; the MAIB are to examine and investigate the tragic loss of Cheeki Rafiki and the RYA will assist in every way that it can. This will take time, but hopefully will provide clearer information about the incident to enable steps to be taken to reduce the likelihood of such a tragedy reoccurring.

All at the RYA offer their most sincere condolences to the families of the missing crew in this most difficult of times.