This is a press release courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard

The Coast Guard is searching the waters along the mid-Oregon coast for three members of a catamaran crew whose boat was spotted wrecked 50 feet from the Lincoln City shore today.

Coast Guard Station Depoe Bay received a call at approximately 10 a.m. that a catamaran had been spotted upside-down and demasted near Lincoln City.  The owner of the vessel was located and reported he had hired a crew to bring the boat from South Africa to Seattle. 

The vessel was last seen leaving San Francisco on December 8. 

Three HH-65 helicopter crews were dispatched from Coast Guard Air Station North Bend to perform shoreline searches and fly search patterns over the ocean in the area of the wreck. 

A C-130 search plane crew from Air Station Sacramento, California, was also dispatched to search for the catamaran crew. 

Local fire/rescue teams and Coast Guard beach crews have responded to the site of the wreckage and are making plans to search the vessel.

The Coast Guard is asking that anyone who may have seen this vessel in transit from San Francisco please contact Coast Guard District 13 Command Center at (800) 982-8813.