missing yacht nina

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New thread of hope - is this a photo of drifting Nina?

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Capsize survivor urges continued search for missing yacht Nina

• Isobel Smith

A man who spent 119 days lost at sea is urging authorities in New Zealand to continue the search for missing yacht Nina

Sailor John Glennie has urged authorities to continue the search for the missing schooner Nina after he survived 119 days lost at sea.   Mr Glennie has written to the Rescue Co-ordination Centre (RCC) and told of how him and three other crew members were left fighting for their lives after their trimaran Rose Noelle capsized in the Pacific Ocean in 1989.   Now he has joined the families of Nina crew members, calling on the rescue agency to resume the search.   The 21m schooner and its seven crew left the Bay of Islands on May 29 and last made contact in June, when a text message was sent asking for a weather update.   While the official search for Nina has now ended, family members organised another search, which produced a satellite image that is thought to be the missing schooner.   “If the image of the boat … is the Nina … then in my humble opinion there is every chance the crew will be in fine shape,” Mr Glennie wrote.

“I know we could have been out there another six months on an upside down Rose Noelle , in which case an upright Nina will have no worries.”

The image appeared to show a water catchment system rigged up from a sail, which did not surprise him because Nina had a “great crew”.

The New Zealand Herald has obtained letters from family members of the missing crew, in which they describe their determination to find their loved ones.

Crew member Kyle Jackson’s family said they desperately wanted to be reunited with their son, but needed the RCC to act.

“They are survivors and they can survive this, they just need your help finding their way home.”

RCC Safety and Response Services general manager Nigel Clifford told the New Zealand Herald that the images weren’t “sufficiently compelling to go out with an airplane to go look for something … [due to] the quality of the picture.

“It’s extremely unlikely to be the Nina – you can’t say that it’s not, you can’t be 100 per cent sure – but the analysis is that it’s extremely unlikely.”

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Blurry satellite images of what appears to be a ship drifting in the Pacific Ocean have raised faint hopes that seven crew members, missing since their yacht disappeared off New Zealand four months ago, may be alive.

Mystery has shrouded the fate of the Nina, a mahogany schooner which vanished after sailing into a severe storm in June. No trace of it was found during a search of more than half a million square nautical miles of the Pacific. The last word from the boat was an undelivered text message reporting: “Sails shredded last night.”

Relatives of the crew – six Americans, including David Dyche, the Nina’s owner and skipper, and 35-year-old Matt Wootton, from Orpington, Kent – say the object in the satellite images is the same size and shape as the 21-metre Nina. A private search and rescue company recruited by the families, Texas EquuSearch, is trying to plot its probable course before conducting an aerial search.

“We have never lost hope that the crew of Nina is alive and well, and that they will be rescued,” Robin Wright, whose 18-year-old daughter, Danielle, was on board, told The New Zealand Herald. However, the images gathered by EquuSearch are a month old, and some are sceptical as to whether they really depict the schooner. According to an Auckland-based meteorologist, Bob McDavitt, the area – about 200 kilometres west of Norfolk Island – is traversed by a vessel at least every other day. Even if the pictures do show the Nina, it may be a wreck – or a ghost ship, with no one left aboard.

The yacht – once the flagship of the New York Yacht Club – left Opua, in New Zealand’s Bay of Islands, on 29 May, headed for Newcastle, north of Sydney. It apparently weathered a storm on 4 June, with Evi Nemeth, a 73-year-old crew member, subsequently reporting the shredded sails.

Ms Nemeth said she would update the Nina’s position six hours later. But no further message was sent. Her undelivered text was released by the satellite phone company Iridium a month later. The boat’s emergency beacon was never activated.

On the day of the storm, Ms Nemeth – in the crew’s last direct contact with the outside world – had sought Mr McDavitt’s advice. The pair spoke by phone, after which she texted him, asking: “ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? … EVI.” That was the last he heard.

Nigel Clifford, the general manager of safety and response services for Maritime New Zealand, has said that while the Nina survived the storm, “very poor weather continued in the area for many hours and… [was] followed by other storms”.

New Zealand authorities have rejected calls by the crew’s families to resume their search. “We feel they are not going to be convinced by a satellite photo until they can see seven people holding their passports up, with their date of birth clearly visible,” said Mr Wootton’s father, Ian. He told the Herald that he and his wife, Sue, had mixed feelings when they first saw the photos. “You get the elation of ‘Yep, this looks like a really good image’. But also the downside of ‘How are you going to find it [the boat] again?’”

One expert, Ralph Baird, told the NY Daily News that the Nina was “a needle in a haystack, and that needle is moving”.

After the Nina disappeared, Russ Rimmington, a New Zealand skipper, claimed that the Nina was unseaworthy, with a warped hull, and that Mr Dyche – whose wife, Rosemary, and son, David, were also on board – refused to carry modern gadgetry.

Mr Rimmington also told Fairfax New Zealand that the Nina would have sunk if it had capsized, because of the lead on its keel.

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Revealing report on Search for American yacht Nina released

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• The Dyche Family

Kyle Jackson

• Matthew Wootton

Danielle Wright

• General Monthly Updates
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• SAR Lessons
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The Nina families still not given up hope (Radio New Zealand)

Sue is interviewed by Radio New Zealand: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2584518

Lost at Sea (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The schooner Niña disappeared during a storm in the Tasman Sea last June. Frank Robson meets the parents of one of the missing crew, who continue to search for their daughter. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/lost-at-sea-20140205-32039.html#ixzz2t3qL9yK1

An update from Robin Wright

A message from Robin Wright: Ricky and I are wrapping up our visit to Australia and New Zealand in the next 2 weeks. It’s hard to even think about coming home without Danielle, but we’ve done everything we know to do to search for Nina and 7 very special people. We know they can survive …

Niña Crew Not Ready to Give Up

TV New Zealand news story. Update on how we are continuing the search effort and looking for answers from Officials. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/family-missing-nina-crew-not-ready-give-up-5816913/video Message from Robin Wright: Thank you Jehan Casinader and Lee Frashier for covering our story and for taking us to Whangarei and Opua. It was a little disappointing that the broadcast seemed to suggest …

Search Continues for American Schooner Missing at Sea Since June (People Magazine)

Search Continues for American Schooner Missing at Sea Since June http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20777101,00.html

The Niña Seven

The lives of 7 people are at risk. The sailing schooner, Niña, went missing in the Tasman Sea, and the families of the crew have requested help from the U.S. Department of State and New Zealand rescue authorities, as we believe the sailors are trapped on the disabled Niña.

Rosemary, David III, and David IV on the deck of the Niña.

The Recovery Coordination Centre in New Zealand (RCCNZ) was contacted on June 8 and asked to help. RCCNZ did conduct 6-days of aerial searches beginning June 25th – 3 weeks after the Niña last communications. The RCCNZ search stopped July 4th and declared the Niña had sunk and the crew dead.

The five families of the crew did not accept that conclusion:

“I know my daughter is alive and waiting to be rescued” – Ricky & Robin Wright, parents of 19-year old Danielle Wright, Niña Crew Member

“matthew is strong and a survivalist and we know he is still aboard the niña and trying to make his way home”, – sue & ian wootton, parents of matthew wootton, niña crew member.

On July 18th the families contacted Texas Equusearch Search and Recovery (TES), a non-profit volunteer service organization dedicated to assisting families find and return lost love ones (www.txeq.org) and asked for help in finding the Niña and her crew. TES formed a small core team of technology specialists and work began work creating a search and rescue plan.

Efforts to get U.S, New Zealand, and Australian support failed, leaving the families and TES completely on their own. However, money was raised, 100s of volunteers were recruited, and search efforts began. Experienced search and recovery flight crews were hired and have flown over 100 missions near New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and Australia.

Needing wider range coverage, TES was successful in bringing on DigitalGlobe and its subsidiary Tomnod, who have graciously supplied free-of-charge high resolution satellite images. The process is to review the satellite images via the Internet, and when an object of interest is identified, send a search plane out to look for it. However, this resource has also failed to accurately locate the missing Niña.

Funds are very limited since they come from private donations and are used to pay for the aerial searches, drift modeling, and other activities to keep this search going. But the bottom line is from hundreds of hours of hard work, the Niña has not been found and our continued hope is she will be seen by passing ships or planes, or run aground on many of the coastal islands in the area and be rescued.

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SCHOONER NINA: Missing and Presumed Sunk

Thanks to a heads-up from WaveTrain rider Gareth Hughes I’ve been following this story over the past several days on the Cruisers Forum . I didn’t write anything, however, as I thought the missing boat would soon show up. Now that seems increasingly unlikely, and it would appear that the fabled 59-foot schooner Nina , winner of the 1928 Transatlantic Race to Spain, the 1928 Fastnet Race, and the 1962 Newport-Bermuda Race, among others, has gone down with all hands somewhere between New Zealand and Australia.

Nina left Opua in the Bay of Islands bound for Newcastle, Australia, on May 29 on what was expected to be a 10- to 12-day passage. The last voice contact was on June 3, when meteorologist Bob McDavitt gave her crew weather-routing advice via sat phone. Their position at the time was about 370 miles west of New Zealand. The following day McDavitt received a text message asking for an update, and nothing has been heard since. Following three days of unsuccessful aerial searches over this past week, Kiwi SAR authorities have reportedly stated it is “logical to assume” the schooner sank. The crew of seven included the owner, David Dyche, 58, his wife Rosemary, 60, their son David, 17, a family friend, Evi Nemeth, 73, and three others, two men and one woman, who have not been identified. When last heard from, Nina and her crew were caught in a gale with winds blowing from 43 to 60 knots.

Owner David Dyche at the wheel of Nina

I’ve been struck by the mainstream media’s great interest in this story and can only assume it is because of Nina ‘s age and pedigree, as all accounts seem to refer to her as a “classic” and/or “historic” vessel. She is all that and more, and as sailors we should remember her (if it comes to that) more explicitly.

These days we all cite Olin Stephens ‘ famous yawl Dorade as the boat that transformed ocean racing and modern yacht design in the early 20th century, but really that was a process that started with Nina . Prior to Nina , ocean racing was dominated by much more conservative gaff-rigged “fisherman” schooners, many of them designed by John Alden . Nina , designed by W. Starling Burgess for Paul Hammond, retained a schooner rig, but flew a huge Marconi main with staysails forward, and her hull was narrower and deeper with a more swept-back keel than Alden’s more traditional hulls. Also, her construction was light for the time, and her masts were hollow. Most particularly, she was much more closewinded than traditional schooners, which is how she won the race to Spain.

Linton Rigg, sailing master on second-place Pinta , a gaff-rigged Alden schooner, described the finish as follows:

When we finally made landfall on Spain, Nina was way down on the horizon behind us. Then the wind died and came out dead ahead. The best an Alden schooner, gaff rigged, could make on the wind in that light going was six points, while Nina was doing four and a half. It almost broke our hearts to see Nina go by us to windward almost within sight of the finish.

Nina , seen here flying her original rig, was described by some as a “two-masted cutter.” Her mainmast is nearly amidships and her formast is so short her triatic stay is in a straight line with her forestay

Later in her career Nina was given a taller foremast, seen here

In the end Nina beat Pinta by 29 hours. Later that summer, when she lined up for the Fastnet Race at Cowes in England, she was considered so radical there was serious discussion of banning her from the fleet. Conditions favored her–light headwinds–and she won that race, too, by a margin of over nine hours.

A model of Nina side by side with a model of the cutter Jolie Brise , which corrected out to second place in the ’28 Fastnet Race. The blatant differences between these craft should give some idea of why the Brits thought it unfair for Nina to race

For much of her career Nina belonged to DeCoursey Fales, a commodore of the New York Yacht Club, and served for a time as the club’s flagship. Fales was her owner when she won the 1962 Bermuda Race at age 34, thanks to two massive gollywobblers she carried in her sail inventory, which were known respectively as “the Monster” and “the Grand Monster.” Fales at the time was himself age 74, and there was much ado in Hamilton, as you might imagine, over the fact that the race had been won by the oldest boat and skipper in the fleet.

Lines drawing of Nina

Profile and accommodation plan

For the past couple of decades Nina has belonged to the Dyche family, who, by all accounts, have maintained her carefully and have sailed her well on a long series of bluewater cruises. Here you can see her in action in a video made by one starstruck crew member during a passage to the Azores in 1992:

There is still some hope she and her crew will reappear soon–we can only pray this will be the case.

UPDATE (July 4): One story I’m seeing early this a.m. claims another text message, delivery of which was delayed, was received after Nina survived the gale of June 4. This message allegedly said the schooner’s sails were damaged, but that she was still making progress. Kiwi SAR authorities are searching a new area today. The formerly unidentified crew are Danielle Wright (18), Kyle Jackson (27), and Mathew Wootton (35). All onboard but Woottoon, a Brit, are U.S. citizens.

UPDATE (July 11): Pls. note I’ve changed one photo here, the third one, pursuant to a comment below. Still no word or sign of Nina and the search for her has been suspended. The situation seems quite bleak, I’m afraid.

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The late Frank Snyder who was also a commodore of NYYC told me that she was built as a rule beater, and the premise was that the stays should line up to make her into a schooner in name only, thereby gaining a rating advantage. Frank would have been born about 1920 so his information was not current with the building of the boat.

Evi Nemeth the friend of a very good friend is a larger than life character, it is difficult to think of her not surviving http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evi_Nemeth

Very good summary and interesting history! Makes one wonder about the conditions such that forecasts wouldn’t have called for a delay…..

@Gareth: Yes, my understanding is Nina was built as a rule-beater. Specifically, Paul Hammond had her designed explicitly for the race to Spain and to the rule that governed it.

@Don: My understanding was the forecast was not great, but I don’t know enough to second-guess their decision to leave. I gather crossing the Tasman is much like sailing from New England to Bermuda in the fall. Leave too early and you risk tangling with a tropical system; leave too late and you’re into winter gales. Plus, crossing the Tasman takes much longer! If you wait for a perfect window, you’ll never leave.

Nice….

Just to let you know that the first photo you show here is not Nina but is the boat Ninita which my wife Jenny and I own, racing in the Azores a few years ago. Ninita was built for us to Burgess’ plans for Nina but in 2004 and she carries the original Burgess sail plan. We are facebook friends of the Dyches and are still hoping…

Sorry, I said first photo, but meant 3rd…

@Paul: Thanks for pointing that out! I’ve put in another photo. I’m still hoping, too, but the chances are getting pretty slim, I’d say.

We just keep hoping. No identified debris yet? so perhaps still some hope …

It’s time wikipedia had an entry for Ni

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Heartbreaking: These parents cling to the hope 19-year old Danielle is alive

19-year old Danielle Wright is missing.

Her parents are desperate to find her.

So much so that they have moved half way across the world and spent more than half a million dollars searching for her.

So much so that her father is now taking flying lessons so he can scour the Pacific for his missing daughter.

Vivacious, smart, adventurous – Danielle Wright from Baton Rouge in the US, is an honor student studying psychology at the University of Louisanna.

It was to be the biggest adventure of her life – a coast-to-coast yachting adventure on board a historic schooner.

She had flown from the US to New Zealand and was setting sail from there to Newcastle on May 29 last year. Her parents had given her a surprise plane ticket for her birthday where she was to meet the crew.

She was adamant she was taking this trip alone, as a sign of her independence and adulthood.

She  to sail on the Nina, a  glorious 70-foot yacht with a crew of seven – six Americans and one British citizen.

• David Dyche, the Captain, 58, from Florida
• His 60-year-old wife Rosemary
• Their 18-year-old son David Dyche
• Matthew Wooton a 35 musician from the UK
• Kyle Jackson, 27 from Nebraska who was highly trained in survival techniques.
• Evi Nemeth, 73 Professor from Colorado
• Danielle Wright, from Baton Rouge.

All are highly experienced in sailing and survival.

On the third day, the Nina hit the first of three storms, packing 60 knot winds and 10 metre high seas.

The yacht then vanished.

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“There’s a 20 per cent chance that they could’ve sunk, but if that boat is afloat they are alive,” her father, Ricky Wright told Channel 7.

Initially, with the Nina lost about 370 nautical miles west of New Zealand, authorities sent out a plane to comb the Tasman Sea.

On July 1 an undeliverable text message surfaced, sent by the crew after the storm.

It said their storm sails had shredded and they were now on bare boles drifting at four knots, at a nautical position of 310 degrees.

“That would’ve put them in a whole different weather pattern and drift pattern,” Ricky said.

Aerial searches still could not find the Nina and the authorities called off the search.

Robin is critical of the procedure, because the authorities waited for several weeks before beginning the search.

He told the Mail Online ‘We have also learned that the search aircraft is capable of detecting metal objects with their equipment, but not a wooden yacht like the Nina. The more we looked at the whole search procedure the more we believed that the Nina was still out there and had drifted away from the search area.’

In September fresh hope came for the family – a new clue suggesting that the Nina was still in the Tasman Sea – a ghostly, grainy, satellite image of a yacht, spotted on September 15 by the Texas EquuSearch company, drifting some 184 nautical miles off the coast of Norfolk Island.

‘It’s blurry, but you can see that it’s the same shape as the Nina – when you compare that shape with engineering drawings of the Nina it leaves no doubt in my mind that this is the yacht,’ says Danielle’s Mum.

But by the time any kind of search could be launched, it was 10 days old. The object seen in the picture has not been found again nor properly identified.

Danielle’s parents, Ricky and Robin Wright have not given up home. They are now living in Port Macquarie in NSW searching every inch of coastline they can and pleading with local pilots to take up the hunt.

Both the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand and the US State Department are convinced there is no evidence the boat is still afloat.

Maritime experts believe the 85-year-old yacht suffered a catastrophic failure and sank immediately without trace.

Danielle’s family stay with a more optimistic point of view – they cling to the hope that the ship is stranded somewhere.

Her mum tearfully told the Mail Online ‘I live every day with a picture in my mind of Danielle and the others living in their own little community on some remote island, having learned how to fend for themselves, catching fish and living off rainwater and coconuts.

‘She’s tough, she’s smart – and none of the other crew members would have set out on that yacht for an adventure if they didn’t have that “get up and go” spirit about them. In time of trouble, they would all work together and get through it.’

The family has set up a Facebook page to aid with their search.

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EPIRBS, continously updating gps coordinates to trusted members and a hell of a lot of safety gear is what I'd take before even thinking of going that far out to sea.

Schooner Nina

The story of the famous Schooner Nina, and the crew of 7 who lost their lives on its final voyage

Schooner Nina and her crew

Introduction

The Schooner Niña is famous as a boat that transformed ocean racing yacht design. Prior to its construction in 1928, ocean racing was dominated by gaff-rigged ‘fisherman’ schooners, many named after their designer, John Alden. Nina was a narrower and deeper-hulled boat rigged with a Marconi main sail with staysails forward, and it signaled the future of yacht design by winning its first race (New York to Santander) followed in short order by the Fastnet race (in the Irish Sea and English Channel) – the first American yacht to do so.

But the Niña will be remembered for its final voyage, where tragically its crew of seven are presumed to have lost their lives when the Niña disappeared on a voyage from New Zealand across the Tasman Sea to Australia.  The largest search in the history of RCCNZ (Rescue Coordination Centre, New Zealand), followed by months of searching organized by relatives of the crew, failed to find any trace of the vessel and crew, or any wreckage. June 4 th 2013 marks the date of this greatest loss of life in recreational boating history.

The History of Schooner Niña

Designer: W. Starling Burgess.   Built by: Reuben Bigalow Ship Yard, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA .

Year Built: 1928                        Original Owner: Paul Hammond

Burgess “Nina” Specifications: Overall length 70’0”/21.33m. Length on deck 59’0”/17.98m Water Line length 50’0″/15.24m Beam 14’10”/4.52m Draft 9’7”/2.92m. Displacement 44 tons. Sail Area: 2,275 sq ft Foremast: 65′ 0″ / 19.81m – Mainmast: 85′ 0″ / 25.90m

Race history

Known Racing History:

1928 Winner New York to Santander, Spain. 3,900 mile race in 24 days, greeted by King Alfonso from his launch, with “Well sailed, Niña, I congratulate you! I am the King of Spain.” Niña then went to England for the 600 mile Fastnet Race which takes place through the stormy waters of the English Channel and the Irish Sea. She became the first American yacht to win that race. Her overall time was 4 days, 12 hours, 48 minutes, 13 seconds. 1929 Winner London to Gibson Island Chesapeake Bay. Niña had one more major win, the 1929 race from London to Gibson Island Chesapeake Bay. She was temporarily retired as owner, Paul Hammond, became involved in the 1930 Americas Cup race.

1939 Winner New York Yacht Club Astor Cup, and 1940 Winner New York Yacht Club Astor Cup. In 1934, New York banker, DeCoursey Fales bought Niña, and each year of his life he became more and more devoted to her. He would talk for hours about the ‘old girl’. The rest of Niña’s career was probably fore-ordained as she won the New York Yacht Club Astor Cup in 1939 and 1940. Just before WWII, she won for the first time an event that was to become her specialty, the 233 mile Stanford-Vineyard Race on Long Island Sound. Afterward, she was laid up for the duration of the war. Niña was not allowed to rot, however, and she came out after the war in better shape than ever for a three year stint as flag ship for the New York Yacht Club.

1949 Winner Cygnet Cup Mr. Fales became the NYYC commodore in 1949, and Niña earned her honors by taking first place in ¾ of the yacht club’s squadron races as well as winning the Cygnet Cup in 1949. She made such a habit of winning races that Commodore Fales put the trophies back in competition. It became almost a stock joke that Niña would proceed to win back her own trophies! 1962 Winner Newport to Bermuda Race. In 1962 to thunderous cheers, Niña, became the oldest yacht at 34 years to win the Newport to Bermuda Race, under 72 year old Commodore Fales (the oldest skipper in the race!). In 1966, then 78 year old Commodore Fales passed away while his crew was attempting to repeat the Bermuda win. Niña had five owners after Fales, one being Kings Point Academy. 1989 Winner New York Mayors Cup 1994 Winner Antigua (Schooner Class) 2012 Winner New Zealand’s 37th Tall Ships and Classic Invitation

Starling Burgess NINA

Ownership and Restoration, from mid 90’s

Nina was purchased in 1988 by David N. and Rosemary Dyche. They undertook much restoration to the vessel. A new deck took 3 years to complete and was finished in 1997. Photos of some of the restoration can be seen here http://www.sail-world.com/111389 .

In September 2008, the Dyche family, including David junior, began circumnavigating.  

A replacement engine was fitted and trialled in Opua, shortly before starting the fateful last voyage.

The final voyage

On 29 th May 2013, the Historic American Schooner Niña, with a crew of seven, left Opua, New Zealand on a planned voyage to Newcastle, Australia. On 4 th June 2013, contact with the vessel was lost.

 This treatise documents everything known about the vessel, the crew, the journey, and the search for the vessel following loss of communication.

The Nina families still not given up hope (Radio New Zealand)

http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2584518

Lost at Sea (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The schooner Niña disappeared during a storm in the Tasman Sea last June. Frank Robson meets the parents of one of the missing crew, who continue to search for their daughter.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/lost-at-sea-20140205-32039.html#ixzz2t3qL9yK1

An update from Robin Wright

A message from Robin Wright :

Ricky and I are wrapping up our visit to Australia and New Zealand in the next 2 weeks. It’s hard to even think about coming home without Danielle, but we’ve done everything we know to do to search for Nina and 7 very special people. We know they can survive whatever the Tasman throws at them with God’s hand of protection covering them. Please keep all the family members and the crew in your thoughts and prayers as we continue to wait for our loved ones to resurface. Here’s a few photos in New Zealand and Australia…

Niña Crew Not Ready to Give Up

TV New Zealand news story. Update on how we are continuing the search effort and looking for answers from Officials. http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/family-missing-nina-crew-not-ready-give-up-5816913/video

Message from Robin Wright :

Thank you Jehan Casinader and Lee Frashier for covering our story and for taking us to Whangarei and Opua. It was a little disappointing that the broadcast seemed to suggest that we expect New Zealanders to foot the bill for our continued search for 7 precious lives. The fact is that we, with the help of many, many concerned people from all over the world, have raised and spent over $600,000 on private searches so far, and all of that money was spent in New Zealand and Australia. We and other family members have taken money from our personal savings, even Danielle’s college fund, to attempt to locate Nina as we believe she is still drifting. The boat in the satellite image looks just like Nina, and was found out in the middle of the Tasman where experts told us Nina should be. It’s time for RCCNZ to provide the families with the technical data used in their determination that the satellite image is “not likely Nina” so we can have closure on this issue. But if that satellite image is of the Nina and RCCNZ did not go out and rescue the crew as is their responsibility, we will know the truth soon enough when Nina drifts to shore and the crew can verify their location on September 16th. Evi Nemeth is certainly charting their course and we will be able to see exactly where Nina drifted all these months.

Praying for God’s provision and protection over our loved ones!

Search Continues for American Schooner Missing at Sea Since June (People Magazine)

Search continues for american schooner missing at sea since june.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20777101,00.html

Wrights Still Searching for Missing Daughter

Article from the Advocate:  Wrights still searching for missing daughter

BY BILLY GUNN January 01, 2014

December 2013 General Update

. . . . . . . . . . . A Lot to be Thankful For . . . . . . . . .                        

Update 30 December 2013

Update 26 December 16:00 CST Houston = 27 December 2013 09:00 local time Maryborough AUS

Ricky Wright departed local airport to visually air search islands for the schooner Nina and its crew  of 7.

Update December 24, 2013 on the eve, from the Auckland New Zealand Herald and to the NZ Herald a huge thank you for your concern for our 7 loved ones from the families and friends of those lost offshore the Tasman. We have great hope especially at this time. Merry Christmas New Zealand.

The New Zealand Herald

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11176847

The Advocate

http://theadvocate.com/home/7925281-125/wrights-still-searching-for-missing

Update December 15, 2013

Air search now by Australian pilots volunteering to help locate the schooner Nina and its crew of 7.

The Wrights, parents of Danielle Wright remain in Australia to assist in the air seacrh efforts.

New Zealand ocean systems has now offered to assist in the currents and winds models.

Hope is what this search is all about: we need your help to get the resources back out there to search.

There needs to be serious improvements in the manner that search and rescue managers and agencies manage their day to day jobs. This includes serious changes to honor the common practices to search early not late.

Dec 26th Visual Air Search Update

Santa keeps an eye out for the niña.

Updated December 24, 2013 on the eve, from the Auckland New Zealand Herald and to the NZ Herald a huge thank you for your concern for our 7 loved ones from the families and friends of those lost offshore the Tasman. We have great hope especially at this time. Merry Christmas New Zealand.

Mike Lynch leaves a complex, still-unfolding legacy

It was a tragic, complicated end to a colorful, complicated life—a life still shrouded in layers of complexity. 

When Mike Lynch, described at one time as Britain’s Bill Gates , passed away last week, it was a shocking turn of events that would have sounded like a plot twist in an HBO show if it hadn’t been starkly real. Lynch was originally among six people listed as missing in the aftermath of an accident that sank a superyacht, named the Bayesian, in the Mediterranean. Lynch’s 18-year old daughter also died in the accident. 

Lynch was only 59, and was just embarking on a new chapter in his life: He had just been acquitted on all charges in a fraud case that played out for more than a decade, and was on the Bayesian with friends, celebrating the turning page. 

Lynch was an unlikely tech founder in an unlikely place, as my colleague Ryan Hogg writes : 

Lynch was born in Ireland and raised in Chelmsford, Essex. His mother was a nurse, and his father was a firefighter. Speaking in 2016 , Lynch said his father gave him the advice to “get a job that doesn’t involve running into burning buildings.”

Lynch’s software company Autonomy would prove to be both his making and his albatross. The startup—focused on enterprise and in part built on Bayesian inference methods (hence, the name of the yacht)—grew rapidly after Lynch cofounded it in 1996. Autonomy did a number of high-profile acquisitions through the 2000s, and was acquired by HP in 2011 for more than $11 billion. That’s where things get complicated: HP wrote the investment down by $8.8 billion just a year later, citing “accounting irregularities.” This kicked off a legal battle that would last for years in which HP accused Lynch of fraud, while Lynch consistently denied the charges. Autonomy’s former CFO was found guilty of fraud in the U.S. in 2018. 

But in July, Lynch was acquitted on all 17 charges brought against him. And on the yacht, Lynch was said to be celebrating his new lease on life.

Lynch leaves behind a complex legacy, and some outstanding questions. He, through his VC firm Invoke Capital, was an early key investor in cybersecurity company Darktrace, which Lynch first invested in in 2012. As my colleague Leo Schwartz writes : 

One of its most profitable investments was Darktrace, a cybersecurity firm that shared deep connections with Autonomy, including , as of early 2020, half of Darktrace’s board and six of its eight top executives. Lynch and his wife held a combined stake of around 7% in Darktrace as of April 2024.

In part thanks to its ties to Autonomy, Darktrace soon became mired in scandals, including a Forbes investigation that alleged widespread sexual harassment. Despite the bad press, Darktrace went public in April 2021, with its price soaring from an initial valuation of $2.4 billion by 43% on its first day of trading.

The honeymoon didn’t last. In September 2022, discussions of an acquisition between Thoma Bravo and Darktrace fell through , sending share prices tumbling. And then in early 2023, the short-selling firm Quintessential Capital Management published a 70-page report accusing Darktrace of similar misconduct that had sunk Autonomy. 

Thoma Bravo announced plans to acquire Darktrace in April for $5.3 billion, a deal that’s likely to proceed as planned, as my colleague Luisa Beltran reports : 

The deal still needs regulatory approval, but Thoma Bravo is expected to complete the acquisition by the end of 2024, a person familiar with the transaction said.

“If the shares have already been voted, there is no obvious mechanism or need for further approval or action to be taken by any shareholders, including the Lynch family or estate,” an attorney who advises on M&A transactions told Fortune .

Lynch’s passing may not change the outcome for Darktrace, but it does highlight the harsh reality that even when we get second chances, we never know how long we have to make the most of them. 

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle Twitter: @agarfinks Email: [email protected] Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here .

Nina Ajemian curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Siepe , a Dallas, Texas-based software and technology services provider for asset management, raised $30 million in Series B funding from WestCap .

- Tilt , a London, England-based real-time shopping platform, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led the round and was joined by existing investors TQ Ventures , Earlybird and Seedcamp .

- Solace , a Redwood City, Calif.-based digital health platform, raised $14 million in Series A funding. Inspired Capital led the round and was joined by Anne Wojcicki , Susan Wojcicki , RiverPark Ventures , existing investors Craft Ventures and Torch Capital , and others.

- Workpay , a Nairobi, Kenya-based HR, payroll, and benefits platform, raised $5 million in Series A funding. Norrsken22 led the round and was joined by Visa , Plug n Play , existing investor Y Combinator , and others.

- Agilysys acquired Book4Time , a Markham, Canada-based spa management SaaS technology provider, from Serent Capital . Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Podimo acquired Tonny Media , an Amsterdam, Netherlands-based podcast production company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- Bicara Therapeutics , a Boston, Mass.-based targeted therapy biotech company, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. Biocon , RA Capital Management , Red Tree Venture Fund , Omega Fund , Invus Public Equities , and TPG back the company.

- MBX Biosciences , a Carmel, Ind.-based peptide therapeutics biotech company, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. Frazier Life Sciences , New Enterprise Associates , OrbiMed Advisors , Deep Track Capital , Wellington Management Company , Norwest Venture Partners , and RA Capital back the company.

- Zenas BioPharma , a Waltham, Mass.-based immunology-based therapies biopharmaceutical company, filed to go public on the Nasdaq. The company posted $50 million in revenue for the year ending June 30, 2024. Xencor , Enavate Sciences , SR One , Longitude Capital , Tellus BioVentures , Fairmount Funds Management , New Enterprise Associates , Norwest Venture Partners , and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company back the company.

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Missing yacht: Shoreline search unsuccessful

Rosemary and David Dyche in November, 2012

A shoreline search today for the crew of the historic American schooner Nina, missing en route from the Bay of Islands to Newcastle, Australia, has been unsuccessful.

An extensive aerial shoreline search was undertaken along the country's northern west coast, an area identified by the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) based on drift modelling from the last known position of the yacht earlier this month.

The seven-strong crew of the 21-metre vessel were last heard from on June 4.

"We tasked a twin-engine fixed-wing aircraft to search the shoreline and coast starting at Tauroa Point, along Ninety Mile Beach, north of Northland, and out to and around Three Kings Islands, but unfortunately there was no sign of the vessel or crew,'' mission controller Neville Blakemore said.

The Piper Chieftain, from the Hamilton-based Phillips Search and Rescue Trust, with the pilot and three observers on board left Hamilton about 10am and searched throughout the day for the vessel.

Mr Blakemore said a debrief would be held overnight, before a decision on the next stage of the search operation.

The 84-year-old wooden vessel was owned by 58-year-old American David Dyche.

He was travelling with his 60-year-old wife, Rosemary, their 17-year-old son David, a 35-year-old British man and well-known maritime technology expert Evi Nemeth, 73.

An 18-year-old American woman and a 28-year-old American man were also on board.

The RCCNZ has coordinated two extensive sea-based searches based on different scenarios, covering a combined area of 500,000 square nautical miles.

The schooner, built in 1928, left Opua in the Bay of Islands on May 29 and was last heard from about 370 nautical miles west-north-west of Cape Reinga.

The vessel was equipped with satellite phone, a spot device which allows regular tracking signals to be sent manually, and an emergency beacon. The beacon had not been activated, Mr Blakemore said.

After concerns were raised by family and friends, the RCCNZ launched a "communications search'' on June 14, using a range of methods to broadcast alerts to the vessel and others in the area.

RCCNZ search and rescue mission coordinator Kevin Banaghan said an RNZAF P3 Orion had completed two extensive searches.

On Tuesday a search area of 160,000 square nautical miles was covered, to the immediate north-north-east of New Zealand, based on the vessel being disabled and drifting.

On Wednesday a search was completed of 324,000 square nautical miles between northern New Zealand and the Australian coast, based on the vessel suffering damage but continuing to make progress towards Australia.

Records showed that conditions at the last known position for the vessel were very rough, with winds of 80km/h, gusting to 110km/h, and swells of up to eight metres.

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