Fresh search for missing yacht Missing: The yacht Nina. A new search is underway for a yacht thought lost at sea between Australia and New Zealand. Six Americans and one Englishman were on-board vintage yacht The Nina when it disappeared on June 4 on its way to Newcastle in New South Wales - sparking a massive search covering an area four times the size of New Zealand. The official search was called off in early July after no trace was found of the yacht, its lifeboat or crew. Matthew Wootton, one of the missing sailors. But families of the missing crew maintained private search efforts and recruited followers on Facebook to scour satellite images for any sign of the 21-metre schooner. On Sunday afternoon, the crowd-sourced search appeared to find an orange/yellow object to the west of Norfolk island. The Nina had an orange life-raft. Using money raised and donated, the families launched a private Cessna F406 to fly over the area where the object was spotted. The twin-engine turbo-prop conducted a low-level search between Lord Howe Island, where it is based, and Norfolk Island before stopping at the second island to refuel. It has not yet been able to search the area where the object was found. The yacht was skippered by an experienced sailor, 58-year-old American David Dyche III. Also onboard were his wife, Rosemary, 60, son David Dyche IV, 17, Evi Nemeth, 73, Kyle Jackson, 27 and Danielle Wright, 18. Englishman Matthew Wootton, 35, was the final member of the crew. Ms Nemeth, a sailor and retired engineer, made the yacht's last contact when she called a New Zealand meteorologist and asked: "The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it?" The Nina's last known position, somewhere between Opua, in New Zealand's Bay of Islands, and NSW, had winds of up to 110km/h and swells of up to eight metres. Ms Nemeth's partner, Curly Carswell, criticised New Zealand's search and rescue service for taking almost two weeks to begin the search.