Qtown man skipper of detained yacht

A New Zealand yachtsman was reportedly the skipper of a high-tech racing yacht which was detained by an Iranian gunboat while sailing in the Persian Gulf.

Five young Britons crewing the yacht were captured by those on the gunboat last week, and remain under detention, while New Zealander Nick Crabtree, of Queenstown, appears to have not been on the boat at the time.

The yacht, Kingdom of Bahrain, was due to start a Dubai-Muscat race.

It would have been the first offshore race for the boat under the Sail Bahrain banner following its official launch at Amwaj Islands on November 19.

Crabtree was quoted shortly before the vessel's capture as saying: "We are looking forward to flying the flag for Bahrain throughout the Gulf.

The team director of Sail Bahrain, Crabtree said the business was offering the opportunity to helm and sail one of the offshore yachts, sailing with a professional crew "with exceptional international sailing experience".

Crabtree has run a similar business in Queenstown, selling rides on NZL 14, an old America's Cup yacht. Though the New Zealander was listed as the boat's skipper on the website, sources said the men taken were Sam Usher, Olly Smith, Luke Porter, Oliver Young and David Bloomer, a Bahrain Radio presenter who was planning to give regular updates through the race.

The yacht was stopped on its way to the Gulf city of Dubai on Wednesday when it "may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters," Britain's Foreign Office said.

Richard Schofield, an expert on international boundaries in the Middle East at King's College in London, said it was difficult to understand how its crew could have ended up in trouble with Iranian authorities.

"It's hard to see why, on a regular journey from Bahrain to Dubai, they would have gone through Iranian territorial waters," he said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that British officials had been in touch about the matter with their Iranian counterparts for nearly a week. It was not immediately clear why British officials had decided to publicize the case now.

The crew members were still in Iran and "understood to be safe".