Coast Guard still looking for missing sailors

The 54-foot sailboat Flying Colours sent out an automatic electronic distress signal on Monday morning.

PORTSMOUTH -- U.S. Coast Guard rescue crews out of Porstmouth and Elizabeth City continue to search for four people who were aboard a sailboat that disappeared off the Outer Banks amid high winds on Monday.

The 54-foot sailboat Flying Colours sent out an automatic electronic distress signal on Monday morning, signifying that the vessel was sinking or taking on water. The distress signal stopped around 4 p.m. with no subsequent communication.

Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Christopher Evanson said two helicopters and a cutter continue to search the waters off Cape Lookout, N.C. He said that as of this morning, the search has covered more than 13,000 square miles.

Evanson said the families of the four boaters have been notified, and that none of the families has heard from anyone on board the boat. He declined to speculate how much longer the Coast Guard would continue to search if no traces of the boaters or the vessel are found.

"One of the toughest decisions a commanding officer has to make is when to suspend a case," Evanson said. "If we have exercised all of our assets to the point of fatigue, then we would have to pull back at a point to be determined. To reach that decision, we would rely on a lot of factors -- the experience of the crew, the age of the crew, whether they had proper life-saving equipment and warm clothing, whether they were in warm water or cold water. They all play into the survivability statistics."

He said the boat's crew included at least two experienced sailors. The missing people are identified as Patrick Topping, 39, the master of the boat; Jason Franks, 34; Rhiannon Borisoff, 22; and Christine Grinavic, whose age was not provided in the press release from the Coast Guard.

The sailboat, which has a home port in Washington, D.C., was reportedly traveling from the Caribbean to Annapolis, Md.

"We will continue to search until we feel that we've exercised all of our assets to the point we can exercise them," Evanson said.