The search for a British yachtsman and his three crew missing off the US coast was called off last night. Jacek Bielecki, 56, his 19-year-old son Jack, his son’s American girlfriend Molly Finn, 21, and Briton Richard White, 34, were onboard the 41ft yacht Free Spirit when she hit the remnants of tropical storm Alberto on Thursday. Mr Bielecki called his daughter-in-law by satellite phone to tell her they were in trouble, and needed to be rescued immediately, but the yacht hasn’t been heard of since.

The distress call was made 200 nautical miles south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and 290 nautical miles east of Chatham, Massachusetts. Debris was found in the area the call was made, but this has not been directly linked to the missing vessel. After combing 15,000 square miles of the Atlantic, the US Coastguard decided to suspend the search.

Mr Bielecki, a former lawyer, originally from Orford, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, bought Free Spirit several months ago, intending to sail round the world. He moved to Newport in Rhode Island after separating from his wife in 2005.