Tonga searchers not giving up on lost sailors

Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand is coordinating the search for two sailors missing in Tongan waters. Photo / Thinkstock

A team of nine searchers is set to spend the night on the island of Late, west of Vava'u, Tonga, after failing to find two missing sailors.

A land-based search is continuing tomorrow for the two Australian men, both in their 60s, who have been missing since their yacht Navillus was wrecked last Thursday night.

The men reported via a satellite phone to a relative in Victoria that they had run their 50ft yacht aground and it was breaking up.

An emergency locator beacon was activated at the same time, around 10.30pm.

The yacht's debris was located, as was its dinghy, an undeployed liferaft and a numerous life jackets.

However, an aerial search of more than 191 square nautical miles by an RNZAF Orion failed to find the men.

After two days of high seas, two fishing vessels successfully landed the searchers on the island and have also completed a sea-based search of the coastline around the island, but to no avail.

Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) co-ordinator Mike Roberts said the search of the island should be completed tomorrow.

The conical island is bush-clad at shore level but at its highest point is mostly clear of vegetation.

The names of the men have not been released and Police in Victoria are co-ordinating contact with their families.

The Navillus is understood to have been en route from the Caribbean to Bundaberg in Queensland.