#NEWS UPDATE - The Independent reports that the wreckage of a vessel has been found in the search for a missing yachtswoman off the Devon and Cornwall coast.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, 65-year-old Ona Unwin left Falmouth in Cornwall on Friday in a yacht purchased just the day before.

She was last reported in Mousehole, near Penzance, on Saturday evening after rounding the bottom of the Cornish coast. Relatives raised the alarm on Sunday after she failed to return home to Bideford in Devon.

Devon and Cornwall Police were with members of Unwin's family yesterday afternoon when air and sea search crews discovered the wreckage near Sennan Cove in Cornwall which is believed to be that of her 31-foot Seagair yacht.

No evidence of a body was seen on board the wreck, and a police spokesman said investigations are ongoing.

Meanwhile, it has emerged that Unwin is thought to have dismissed safety warnings about "treacherous" weather in the region over the weekend when she set out.

"I was amazed when I found out that she had set sail," said Jerry Hobkirk, proprietor of Falmouth Yacht Brokers which sold her the yacht last Thursday. "If I had known, we would have stopped her."