By CHRIS COLLINS

The Coast Guard suspended active searching Sunday for a sailboat missing off the North Carolina coast carrying four sailors, including a former Baker City woman.

Rhiannon Borisoff, 22, the daughter of Michael and Lynne Borisoff of Baker City and a 2003 Baker High School graduate, is a crew member aboard the 54-foot sailing vessel andquot;Flying Colours. Other sailors on board are Patrick andquot;Treyandquot; Topping, 39, the boat’s captain; Jason Franks, 34; and Christine Grinavic, 25.

The boat sailed from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, en route to Annapolis, Md., on April 30. The search began May 7 after Coast Guard watch standers at the Rescue Coordination Center in Portsmouth, Va., received an alert from the ship’s radio beacon at 3:30 a.m.

The last signal came in at 7 a.m. on May 7, indicating the boat was about 120 miles southeast of Cape Lookout, N.C., and in the middle of a storm with 35- to 40-foot waves and 45-mph winds, according to Coast Guard officials. By Sunday, the search had covered more than 282,000 square nautical miles, an area larger than Texas.

The crew was transporting the boat for its owners from their winter port in the Virgin Islands to Maryland for the summer.

Family members and friends have not given up hope that the four will return home safe, Michael Borisoff said in telephone interview from Newport, R.I., Monday.

An independent search continued today with a flotilla of 40 sailors traveling from Bermuda to New England and 20 more sailing from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to New England in a coordinated grid search, Borisoff said.

Friends and family are gathering Friday at the Newport Shipyard to generate hope and media attention to continue the search.

andquot;It’s a pep rally party to keep the momentum going, to pray and to keep people’s spirits up,andquot; Borisoff said.

Rhiannon’s boyfriend and fellow sailor, Walter Cavanagh, said the event has been dubbed a andquot;Keep the Faith Party.andquot;

andquot;The intention is to get everyone together in this extremely close-knit community of sailors and friends, and to have a good time and spread the word to the media and everyone else that we are not giving up at all,andquot; he said in an e-mail message from Spain where he had traveled to sail on a racing boat. andquot;They are still out there.andquot;

Cavanagh, who returned to Rhode Island today, said anyone wanting to send best wishes or donations, may e-mail Georgiana Smith, who is helping organize the event. Her e-mail address is Georgianasmith@aol.com.

Cavanagh, 26, who grew up at Newport and has been sailing since he was 7, has sailed with Topping and Franks since the summer of 2005. He met Rhiannon Borisoff and Grinavic last summer while sailing on the andquot;Madeleineandquot;

Last spring he made the exact trip the four made this year, also aboard the andquot;Flying Colours.andquot;

That eight-day trip turned into 14 days at sea because of harsh weather, he said. The crew finally landed at Charleston, S.C., instead of the intended destination of Annapolis.

The captain had the boat repaired after the trip and is andquot;diligent and meticulous in his necessary and preventive maintenance,andquot; Cavanagh said.

He added that although Rhiannon was the rookie on the crew, she is an intelligent woman and learns quickly.

andquot;She is extremely capable,andquot; he said. andquot;She loves sailing and wanted to learn as much as she could. That’s why she took the opportunity to go on this trip with Jason and Trey.andquot;

Cavanagh said there is an eight-person lifeboat aboard the sailing vessel, but if it were in the water a locator signal would have been activated. That’s why he believes they all remain aboard the sailboat.

Cavanagh said the crew should have enough supplies on board to last a couple of weeks. Others have survived as long as 100 days at sea before being rescued, he said.

andquot;There is no reason to be down or to think anything but positive at this time,andquot; he said.

Although the organized search has been suspended, all mariners are being encouraged to stay on the lookout for the andquot;Flying Coloursandquot; and its crew, according to a Coast Guard press release.

Searchers investigated a distress call that came in about 1 p.m. Friday from a woman identifying herself as andquot;Flying Colours,andquot; Cavanagh said. No sign of the boat and crew was found as a result of that search, however.

Michael Borisoff said he and his wife have been overwhelmed with people expressing concern that Rhiannon and her friends are still missing.

He encouraged people to think positive thoughts and to seek blessings for their safe return. He said people may call him and his wife at 401-864-1841; write to them at this address: Lynne Borisoff at P.O. Box 364, Newport, RI 02840; or e-mail them at gw620@cox.net.

andquot;There have been all kinds of survivals,andquot; Michael said. andquot;The odds are really long and people surprisingly come out of it. It’s still a little early to be negative about the whole thing.andquot;