The official search for the men was called off on Sunday, with police saying they believed the men had probably been washed overboard and could not have survived in the water for so long.

But the family of skipper Derek Batten rejected the explanation, insisting the 56-year-old and crew members Peter Tunstead, 69, and brother James Tunstead, 63, were still alive.

Their ship was found drifting last Thursday with engine and computers running and a table laid for a meal, but no one aboard.

Batten's niece Hope Himing said she believed the trio had been kidnapped, saying the "Kaz II" had deployed its rubber fenders -- used only when pulling alongside another boat or docking at a wharf.

"It looks like they've been boarded," she said.

Himing said the official version of events did not answer questions about the state in which the catamaran was found near the Great Barrier Reef.

"If it was bad weather, why would their fishing line be out?" she told reporters.

"If it was that bad that it would have knocked three experienced sailors off, why wouldn't they have put on their life-jackets? It just doesn't add up for us."

The three have been described as experienced and cautious sailors whose disappearance is incomprehensible.

Himing said she and her mother had both felt spiritual contact from Batten, also known as "Des".

"My mum and I are both spiritualists. My mum's had a really strong feeling from Des that he's somewhere dark and he can't see and I don't feel that he's dead either," Himing said.

"I don't think he's got a lot left in him but I actually don't think he's dead, and so everything we can do to get (people) out there looking again is a huge thing."

She criticised police for calling off the search too early.

"We feel hugely let down about this," she said.



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