Lone yachtsman Andrew Halcrow, who sailed from Falmouth last November on an attempted 40,000-mile, non-stop circumnavigation of the globe, has given up finding his beloved yacht Elsi Arrub after he was airlifted to safety off Cape Horn earlier this month.

Elsi Arrub was dismasted in a storm leaving Andrew no option other than to issue a MAYDAY.

From Punta Arenas, in Chile, he said: “I’ve looked at the possibility of chartering planes to search for Elsi and sounded out companies who might have a vessel suitable for towing her if she was found. But, for most of the time it’s just been a case of waiting for news and hoping that somebody has seen her drifting around.”

The area the yacht was in is so remote and so vast that a plane search would only be viable if there was a sighting of some kind to narrow it down.

Andrew said: “The wind over the past week has been predominately onshore and at times up to 60 knots – all tending to push Elsi towards the shore. The view from the Armada (Coastguard) is that she has either sunk out at sea or been driven ashore somewhere onto the coast. Either way she is probably under the water by now.

“She has been such a big part of my life that it feels like losing a family member and life will be very different without her.”