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July 9, 2008

Update: Coast Guard ends search for missing sailor

The Coast Guard has ended its active search for a 65-year-old Connecticut man who fell out of his sailboat Monday near the northern entrance to the Sakonnet River.

This morning, a Coast Guard helicopter flew over the search area looking for Bernard Mochan, of Clinton, Conn.

Mochan had been sailing with his wife on the 32-foot Elizabeth sailboat Monday when the vessel’s boom hit him on the head. He wasn't wearing a flotation device, and fell overboard.

That evening, searchers found a hat that Mochan’s wife said belonged to her husband in the water about a tenth of a mile west of Tiverton. The Coast Guard has been searching for him since but with no further signs.

"Ending a search is a very difficult decision,” Capt. Raymond Perry, commander of Sector Southeastern New England, said today in a statement. “But we think it is highly unlikely that someone could survive more than 40 hours in the water without a lifejacket on.”

“We express our deepest condolences to Mr. Mochan's family and friends."

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson  at 1:11 PM | Permalink

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