The Altair was beginning to get a reputation among Bermudian sailors as a jinxed vessel even before Micah Battersbee and Alan Edness were lost while trying to locate it.

The 60-foot yacht was abandoned amid 20-foot seas 300 miles north-east of Bermuda on November 29 as it was travelling from New Jersey to St. Marteen in the Caribbean. The two male and two female crew were rescued within two hours by the passing tanker Irving Primrose.

The sailboat was sighted several times by local vessels and in mid-December, Bobby Lambe, the skipper of the sunken New Nuts, made his first unsuccessful attempt to find Altair.

In this attempt, he used another of his boats, the 70-foot Ark Angel, but was unable to locate Altair. On New Year's Day, two seamen, Kirk Parris and his brother-in-law Paul Wakefield, ran into problems trying to locate the vessel.

Their 36-foot craft the Sundeck suffered engine trouble when the raw pump broke down and they alerted Harbour Radio.

They were forced to set off emergency beacons and Harbour Radio called on the US Coast Guard for assistance.

But within hours, the Sundeck's crew were able able to repair the pump and limp home to Bermuda.

On Monday Mr. Lambe, Alan Edness and Micah Battersbee set off on the 40-foot New Nuts fromRobinson's Marina as a crew on the Soweto also left to look yet again for the Altair.

The Soweto called off the search and arrived safely back in Bermuda by 11 p.m. on Monday before the storm began to kick in, but New Nuts stayed at sea.

No word was heard of from New Nuts since Tuesday morning when the crew tried to call Harbour Radio.

Mr. Lambe's father Robert Sr. told The Royal Gazette yesterday: "It seems like that boat is a jinx."