while trying to sail into Bermuda without any navigational charts.

Harbour Radio received a call at about 7 p.m. on Thursday night from the sailor saying he was lost.

He knew where he was from his navigational equipment, but had no charts to correlate the readings with, a spokesman said. The 32-foot sloop, West Man , was also low on fuel.

Harbour Radio warned the sailor of the chain of reefs around the Island, gave him a safe course to steer and asked him to make contact again in two hours.

He had been about 12 miles northwest of Chubhead Beacon, the spokesman said.

But the sailor failed to make contact in two hours and efforts to call him were unsuccessful.

And shortly after midnight, Harbour Radio received a call from the man saying West Man had struck reefs and was taking on water fast.

It was determined the sailor was in a small boat channel about two miles northeast of Chubhead.

Marine Police were dispatched and arrived with a water pump at about 2.30 a.m.

yesterday.

West Man was towed to Robinson's Marina in the West End and later taken to Mill's Creek Marina for repairs.

Meanwhile, another solo sailor some 90 miles northwest of the Island was unable to fix steering problems on his 35-foot yacht Pals One .

An officer said yesterday the man was trying to fix the steering on his own before requesting assistance.

He had set off from Virginia on November 2 to compete in the Caribbean 1500.

Last night Harbour Radio reported that the man was still making his way towards Bermuda despite being low on fuel.

They were also investigating reports of whitish-green flares spotted by a number of yachts. Whitish-green is not a distress signal but other boats have been told to watch out for anyone having problems.