As reported in The News yesterday, the vessel Midnight Oil was towed in after it was found floating off the coast of Cornwall.

The elderly sailor, who had left on a sailing trip from Scotland and was on his way home to Gosport, was not found despite an extensive sea search. Midnight Oil was examined at the port of St Ives yesterday, where scene-of-crime investigators said they found nothing suspicious on board.

She is now resting further along the coast at Hayle harbour, where she was taken on the next available tide.

Devon and Cornwall police are treating the inquiry as a missing person investigation and have been talking to the pensioner's son, who was on board just days before the incident.

A Belgian fishing boat discovered Midnight Oil abandoned at sea, 23 miles off Cornwall's north coast, between St Ives and Pad-stow, at 11.45am on Monday.

The boat's engine started with no problems and the man's possessions were found inside the cabin.

Mr Smith was not found despite a Falmouth Coastguard search operation which involved a rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose scouring the sea three miles in every direction from the point where the boat was found, and two lifeboats.

HMS Severn, a naval fisheries vessel which was in the area, was also involved.