US Coast Guard phot

A watchstander aboard the Cutter Tampa searches for the missing sailboat Flying Colours.

That search continued last night, with a Coast Guard cutter and a C-130 airplane checking areas where the boat may have drifted, and it was expected to continue until the boat is found or options for finding it are deemed to be exhausted.

The Coast Guard has identified the missing sailors as: Patrick Topping, 39, the master of the ship; Jason Franks, 34; Rhiannon Borisoff, 22; and Christine Grinavic, 26. Topping and Franks have captain’s licenses.

Franks’ mother, Carol Dale, of North Kingstown, said in an interview yesterday that she is counting on the sailing experience of her son and his friend, Topping. “Jason’s been through a lot of rough treks, he’s very experienced and I’m just praying that it’s paying off for them,” she said.

The Coast Guard picked up an electronic distress beacon from the sailboat at 3:30 a.m. Monday. The boat’s last known position was 35 degrees, 52 minutes north; 74 degrees, 7 minutes west — about 160 miles southeast of Cape Lookout, N.C. The signal stopped at about 7 a.m. Monday.

The search has so far turned up no sign of the crew, nor any debris.

The Flying Colours was sailing from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to Annapolis, Md. Franks last spoke to his mother by telephone from the Virgin Islands on April 28, saying the trip had been held up by weather for a few days, but that they were about to depart. They apparently left April 30 on what is normally a 9- or 10-day sail.

Grinavic is a Cumberland High School and University of Rhode Island graduate. Her parents, Mary and James Grinavic of Cumberland, have been fielding calls from the U.S. Coast Guard during the search. Mary Grinavic said yesterday that her daughter has worked as a crew member on the Arabella, a luxury yacht based in Newport, which spends its winters in St. Thomas.

Grinavic ordinarily would have sailed home on the Arabella, but this season she signed on to bring Flying Colours back to Maryland, Mary Grinavic said. The Flying Colours is home-ported in Washington, D.C., according to the Coast Guard.

The families have been calling members of Congress, Dale said, to ask the representatives to urge the Coast Guard not to give up the search.

“There is a life raft on the boat,” said Dale. “So there is still a good chance, and there is a chance that the mast is down and they cannot get in touch with anybody … These are really good sailors who have been out in rough weather before.”

Petty Officer Kip Wadlow, a spokesman for the Coast Guard’s Fifth District, located in Portsmouth, Va., said the weather off the North Carolina coast was rough during the first two days of the search, but better yesterday. A storm created seas in excess of 30 feet on Monday; Coast Guard helicopters rescued nine people from three other sailboats. Wadlow said the Coast Guard is also searching ports along the coast to see if the Flying Colours had taken shelter.

A Coast Guard C-130 airplane and an HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter, from Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., have been searching from the air; the 270-foot cutter Tampa is searching on the water.

Franks, of Newport, was born in England. He has many years of sailing experience, and captains the Adventuress, an 85-foot wooden charter sailboat based in Newport, said his mother. He has sailed from Newport to Spain, and has sailed in the Virgin Islands many times, she said. He got his captain’s license about seven years ago.

Franks sailed on the Flying Colours at Topping’s invitation — Topping wanted some experienced help to bring the boat back to Maryland, Dale said. She dropped her son at the airport April 24 for the flight to the Virgin Islands. When Franks called on the 28th, “He just said, ‘We’ve been held up by weather for a couple of days but we’re all set to go. We’ll see you in nine days.’

“We’re just desperate,” she said. “We’ve been up for two days.”

Mary Grinavic said of her daughter: “Christine — she’s a smart girl, she’s good in an emergency.” Borisoff has worked on boats as well, she said, “so it’s not like they were just out for a weekend cruise.”

Christine Grinavic is also a writer; some of her essays have been published by The Journal. “I want her to come home and write a big story about this,” Mary Grinavic said.

Providence Journal Staff Writer Randal Edgar contributed to this report.