Lake mystery

Still no signs of Scott French, whose 32-foot boat washed ashore at Point Petre on Sunday.

Yacht comes aground at Point Petre with no one aboard

Rescue crews from both sides of the border spent much of the night Sunday and Monday trying to solve a mystery on Lake Ontario. At about 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon a 32-foot yacht christened Persnickety drifted into Point Petre and ran aground under full sail. A passerby waded out to investigate the mysterious craft—with its sail still fully engaged—only to discover that no one was aboard. He dropped the anchor and called police.

The boat is registered to Scott French of Rochester. French, 53, is believed to have sailed out of Sodus Bay at about 9 a.m. Saturday.

After the boat was discovered, a distress signal was issued and rescue efforts began to look for the missing boater. The Wellington rescue boat was dispatched about 4:30 to scan the shore between Salmon Point and Gull Pond. Meanwhile a Canadian Coast Guard Griffon helicopter was dispatched to investigate— winching a crewman aboard the stranded craft. Soon a Hercules aircraft began surveying a grid overhead. The Coast Guard’s lifeboat Cape Hearne arrived out of Kingston by early evening. By then, the search on the Canadian side was fully co-ordinated with its U.S. counterparts.

Investigators determined from the GPS navigation device aboard the Persnickety that the boat left Rochester two days earlier, that it had sailed out into the lake and turned back proceeding directly back to Rochester. But before it arrived, however, the boat veered off course, tacking randomly around the lake,only stopping when it ran aground at Point Petre.

The Persnickety was pulled into Wellington harbour where it remains under police surveillance. As of press time there remained no sign of French.

On her Facebook page Laurie Deverall French has asked friends and family to pray for her husband.