A search will resume this morning for a man believed to be missing from a boat off Lake Macquarie.
An empty boat was found during the search for 43-year-old Ashley McKellar yesterday morning, who was last reported to have launched a boat from Bolton Point on Wednesday morning.
A large scale land and sea search involving Marine Rescue, Police, the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, Westpac Rescue Helicopter and PolAir had been underway since 7:30pm on Wednesday night after authorities were alerted to Mr McKellar’s disappearance.
Police say at about 11:30am on Thursday the Westpac Rescue Helicopter located a boat about 20 nautical miles off-shore in the search.
Marine Rescue NSW vessels from Lake Macquarie and Newcastle were stood down at around 5:15pm last night while volunteers from Terrigal went back to base at about 4:40pm.
Marine Rescue NSW Hunter/Central Coast Zone Commander Steve Raymond said there was no sign of any persons in the water during yesterday’s extensive search which began just before 8am.
“All of the volunteers from our various units put in a mammoth effort committing to a full day of searching.
“They conducted themselves professionally and searched a large area very thoroughly,” Zone Commander Raymond said.
Marine Rescue NSW volunteers on board Lake Macquarie 30 and Newcastle 30 will resume the search with Water Police from Newcastle and Port Stephens at 8am today.
Ashley McKellar is described as being of Caucasian in appearance, about 185 centimetres tall, with a medium build and has short brown hair and wears dark-rimmed glasses.
His boat is a Telewater 4.8 metre aluminium runabout with registration plates VK844N and is believed to have launched it from the lake access at Bolton Point at about 10:30am on Wednesday.