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Displaying items by tag: Colin Finnie

The wife of a Scottish businessman has appealed for help in finding his whereabouts after his yacht was discovered empty during a 5,000-mile solo trip.

Colin Finnie (67) was last in contact with his family six days before his 45ft yacht Simba was found on Marsa Alam reef in the Red Sea on Friday 13 December, as International Boat Industry reports.

Finnie had been en route to Port Ghalib in Egypt, 350 miles from where his yacht was found abandoned, after setting out from Australia three months previously.

The wife of the retired engineer and former hotelier reportedly wrote on Facebook of her fears for Finnie, saying he was “in storms and low on fuel”.

IBI has more on the story HERE.

Published in Scottish Waters

About Commander Bill King, Solo Circumnavigator

William Donald Aelian King was the last surviving submarine commander in the Second World War - in charge of the British Navy's T-class Telemachus that sank a Japanese sub in the Strait of Malacca, between Malaysia and Sumatra, in 1944.

Decorated many times for his service by the end of the war, King became a trailblazing solo sailor.

At the age of 58, he was the oldest participant in The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race sailing Galway Blazer II, a junk-rigged schooner he designed himself.

After a number of abortive attempts, including an incident with "a large sea creature", he finally completed his solo circumnavigation of the globe in 1973.

Beyond his aquatic escapades, King settled with his wife Anita (who died in 1984, aged 70) at Oranmore Castle outside Galway after the war, where he later developed a pioneering organic farm and garden to help tackle his wife's asthma.

The round-the-world sailor and Galway native Bill King died on Friday, 21 September, 2012, aged 102.