DATE: Saturday, April 5, 1997               TAG: 9704050328

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   51 lines

THREE MEN CHOSE TO RIDE OUT A STORM INSTEAD OF LOSING AN ANCHOR MONDAY. RESCUERS SEARCH COAST FOR MISSING N.C. BOAT

An armada of Coast Guard and Navy ships and planes scoured a vast chunk of the Atlantic Friday for a North Carolina fishing boat last seen in the path of an oncoming storm four days before.

Three Coast Guard C-130 Hercules search planes, a Coast Guard HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and the cutter Aquidneck were joined by the Norfolk-based aircraft carrier George Washington and several naval aircraft in a search for the Char-Lee II, a 40-foot wooden boat based in Morehead City, N.C., with three men aboard.

The searchers criss-crossed an area off the Outer Banks the size of Texas and California combined throughout the day, continuing a search that started Thursday evening after repeated efforts to reach the Char-Lee II by radio failed.

Monday, the boat's crew was fishing for grouper and snapper about 30 miles southeast of Cape Lookout when a storm approached, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Blair Thomas.

The crews of nearby boats decided to head for cover, Thomas said, but the trio aboard the Char-Lee II found that their boat's anchor had snagged on the bottom. They notified fellow fishermen that they planned to ride out the coming weather.

``They could cut the line, or, not wanting to lose the anchor, ride it out,'' Thomas said late Friday. ``There were other options available, too: They could have cut the line, attached it to a buoy, and come back for the anchor later.''

Over the following days, other fishing crews saw no sign of the Char-Lee and eventually became worried, Thomas said. After an ``extensive and very aggressive'' attempt to raise the boat on radio, the Coast Guard set to sea in search of the vessel.

That search reached a 440,000-square-mile area Friday, when the carrier joined the effort, along with one of its choppers and two S-3 Viking anti-submarine aircraft.

``The George Washington was already out there and joined in,'' Thomas said. ``It helps us out because we now have a landing platform for our helicopters.''

The fishing boat was reported to have an electronic position-indicating radio beacon - a device activated when trouble strikes - and a life raft. But the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office in Wilmington, S.C., reported that the radio beacon's battery and a crucial part of the life raft needed replacement in a recent inspection, and that the office did not know whether those replacements had been made. KEYWORDS: U.S. COAST GUARD LOST AT SEA ACCIDENT BOAT

MISSING PERSONS

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