McMurdo says some press statements have said that an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) failed to work, and that Richard Woods was reliant on a voice signal sent via satellite phone for his rescue.

The company stressed to BB that Woods was not carrying an EPIRB. Instead, he had a McMurdo 406 MHz GPS Fastfind Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) on board.

The PLB was set off in the cabin of the catamaran and the report from the Falmouth Coastguard shows that they received the signal and a rescue was instigated.

A statement from Simon Rabett, Maritime and Coastguard Agency rescue coordinator centre manager at Falmouth, confirmed: A Personal Locator Beacon alert came in from Eclipse with a detection time of 21:28 UTC on January 18. This was forwarded to Falmouth from UK Mission Control Centre at RAF Kinloss.

Falmouth contacted the Mexican Search and Rescue Region which accepted the coordination of the search and rescue operation.