West Country skipper’s body found

The body of a fisherman who was out in his 19ft boat during a Force 9 is discovered

The body of the skipper of a 19ft open fishing boat has been found. The man, who has not been named, was discovered in the water three miles north east of Hopes Nose, near Torquay.

The boat, J.C.K, was last seen at 6:25pm on 28 January heading back to the harbour in winds gusting up to 58mph.

Two helicopters, RNLI lifeboats and two Royal Naval frigates were involved in the search for the man.
Debris of a boat, thought to be J.C.K, has been found.

Jeremy Linn from Brixham Coastguard said, “He had been fishing for the afternoon and was coming home with a catch on board, which means he obviously had quite a lot of weight in the boat.

“It was not good weather – it was very windy, we’d had lots of rain and the sea state was rough. It’s a strong possibility that the boat was swamped in some way and sank.”

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