Windsurfer has gone missing off NC’s Outer Banks, US Coast Guard says

A windsurfer went missing Wednesday off the Outer Banks after experiencing a broken sail, North Carolina officials say.

The U.S. Coast Guard has launched a search in the Pamlico Sound, west of Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

“Jim Stoll was last seen at 3 p.m. on Wednesday ... in the vicinity of Clam Shoal in the Pamlico Sound, approximately 3 (nautical miles) off Frisco,” the USCG said in an April 23 news release.

“He was windsurfing when his sail broke. He was wearing a black wetsuit with a silver helmet, riding a vintage windsurf board.”

Stoll lives in the Frisco community on Hatteras Island, according to his Facebook page.

His disappearance occurred when the Outer Banks were experiencing gusts of 20 to 25 mph, the National Weather Service reports.

Three people were rescued Wednesday off the northern Outer Banks, after winds blew their floats more than a mile away from the coast, the Corolla Fire & Rescue Squad reported in an April 22 news release. They were brought to shore by lifeguards and treated for hypothermia, officials said.

Frisco is about a 245-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh.