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Sailors Lost in Tongan Wreck

Rescuers have been scouring the small Tongan island of Late, about 30 miles west of Vava’u, over the past few days in search of two Australian sailors whose Bavaria 50 Navillus broke up on a reef off the island last Thursday. Ian Thompson and Erwin Claus, both in their late 60s, had been delivering Thompson’s newly purchased boat from the Caribbean to the Whitsundays, where he planned to retire. Claus was able to call his wife after the pair went aground, but no sign of them has been found since, though plenty of wreckage has been recovered. Searchers had hoped they made it ashore, but no evidence has been found to support the theory. New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre is reviewing the case and most likely will suspend the search today.

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There’s a pretty cool story coming out of Bermuda at the end of this year’s just completed 635-mile Newport to Bermuda Race, the really big deal race on the East Coast.