Bodies of two Owls Head sailors recovered; sailboat still missing

OWLS HEAD – The bodies of two missing sailors were recovered Thursday from the ocean near Sheep Island.

Peter Brauman and John Syrett of Owls Head, both in their early 60s, had taken a 19-foot sailboat for an afternoon sail Wednesday. When Syrette failed to return home on time, his wife notified the Coast Guard, which launched an air and sea search.

Syrette’s body was found in the water by a fishing boat at 7:45 a.m. Thursday and Brauman was found several hours later by a sailboat, said Luke Pinneo, a Coast Guard spokesman in Boston. Both men were found wearing life jackets, he said. The men were found about half a mile apart.

“They left about 1:30 p.m. yesterday,” William Schrade, a Coast Guard lieutenant from Sector Field Office Southwest Harbor, said Thursday. “Their intention was to sail around that group of islands, about a 5-mile trip.”

The sailboat, which had left from the Holiday Beach area, had not been recovered by Thursday afternoon, and the cause of the accident was not known, Schrade said.

Authorities did not know if the men were experienced sailors. Wind and sea conditions should not have posed a problem, he said.

“It was calm,” Schrade said. “The winds were calm for most of the day.”

When the notification of the missing men came in, the Coast Guard diverted a 47-foot lifeboat to start the search.

“They were out until 11 p.m. or midnight when they were relieved by another small boat from Station Rockland – a rigid 25-foot inflatable boat,” Schrade said.

The boats were aided in their search by the Guardian, the Marine Patrol’s 41-foot lobster-style boat and a Falcon jet that flew in from Air Station Cape Cod.

The men had no phone or radio on board, so there was no call for help.

The case remains under investigation, Pinneo said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.