THE daughter of a man who has been missing at sea for two months says she has been given fresh hope he will be found.

Storme Robertson from Bournemouth has not heard from her father, Reg Roberston, since he and his two crewmates went missing in the Indian Ocean.

The 60-year-old, alongside Anthony Murray, 58, and Jaryd Payne, 20, was due to deliver a Leopard 44 Catamaran to Thailand after setting sail from Cape Town in mid-December. No one has heard from them since January 18.

The families of the missing men, who are all from South Africa, have been calling upon the public to take part in an online satellite-based search in a bid to trace the boat using the crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod.com.

Miss Robertson said two objects have been “tagged” by several online searches over the past week which has given the families renewed hope.

She said the first object, which was identified last Tuesday, has since been ruled out by the authorities but the second object, which was identified on Monday, is now being assessed and is under “urgent analysis” by Tomnod.

She said: "Our hopes are again significantly raised by the objects tagged and then enhanced by several of our dedicated group members.

“We have worked hard to ensure that the images are examined by Tomnod with urgency and are waiting for feedback from the experts.”

She added: “As Monday’s positive tag shows, it is so important to keep searching on Tomnod.

“We are sure that using the eyes of many and Tomnod's incredible platform we will find our family members.”

The yacht, which was last tracked to approximately 2,200 nautical miles off the Australian coast, was in the vicinity of the tropical cyclone Bansi.

The crew, who are thought to have had enough food to last until the end of February, lost contact a few days after they took evasive action in a bid to avoid the cyclone’s path.

The EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) on board the boat, which is similar to the black box fitted on planes, has not been activated.

Thousands of people across the world have joined the online search to try to trace the boat or the liferaft.

To stay updated go to “Searching for Anthony, Reg & Jaryd” on Facebook. To join the search go to tomnod.com.