A US Coast Guard search for a missing Bermudian sailor was called off last night, with the man presumed lost at sea.

George Lambert was last seen two weeks ago by a passing ship which reported his boat having mechanical problems. He was then some 570 miles south-east of Bermuda, halfway to the Caribbean.

Mr. Lambert, a grandfather in his fifties, was en-route to St. Vincent to see his wife Brenda Adams when he disappeared.

For the past five days US and Caribbean coast guards have conducted an extensive search of the region, with two C-130 Hercules aircraft deployed by the US Air Force and US Coast Guard.

Last night however, the search for Mr. Lambert's yacht Endurance II was called off.

"That boat wasn't ready to be sailed yet, it was a death trap from the beginning," said a cousin of Mr. Lambert yesterday.

"But George just wanted to leave the Island. It didn't matter what it took, he told me he was leaving for good."

The cousin, who did not wish to be named, said: "He was just determined to leave. Even though he wasn't prepared, with the boat and everything, he said he could do it so everybody just left him."

The man said he last saw his cousin a day before his departure, as he fished off Robinson's Marina on April 18.

"He said he'd just had enough of Bermuda," he said. "He left the Island with a rotten attitude with the world, but if you make your bed and you can't lie in it, well..."

The last confirmed sighting of Mr. Lambert's 26 ft yacht was on May 4 by a merchant ship which stopped to assist him with a battery.

Since his family have raised the alarm he is "overdue", the US Coast Guard has coordinated a sweep of the region from its Miami Command Center, deploying a C-130 to search the area between Bermuda and Puerto Rico and another to scour the water to the south.

But a spokesman for Bermuda Maritime Operations Centre said last night: "It has been confirmed this evening they have called off the search. Nothing further has been found and they have ceased searching.

"Officially however, the man is still missing."

Harbour Radio will continue to issue marine broadcasts to ships in the area, asking them to keep an eye out for Endurance II.

"We also have searches ongoing in ports in the Caribbean. Coast guards in the region are also broadcasting marine messages and we just have to see if anything comes back from that," said the spokesman.

It is not the first time Mr. Lambert has got into difficulty at sea. In December 2003, Mr. Lambert and Tristan Codrington had to be rescued off the Florida coast.

Their 34 ft yacht Doozy had engine trouble and then developed a leak around the propeller shaft, causing the boat to sink. The pair were picked up by a passing vessel the Capt. Billy Jr., less than an hour before nightfall, 30 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral.

He is also reported to have been rescued in an incident off the coast of Florida in 1997.

Mr. Lambert was also a suspect in a drugs trafficking case one of five men accused of conspiring to import $40 million worth of cannabis aboard the yacht Regulus, between February 1 and March 11, 2004.

Although he and three other defendants were acquitted, he was jailed for three years after admitting possession of cannabis and possession of equipment to prepare a controlled drug.

Mr. Lambert's cousin said he believed the sailor wanted a fresh start away from Bermuda due to the drugs conviction.

"He wanted to leave because he got himself in trouble. He felt the world was out to get him. The drugs thing was probably one of the reasons," he said.

He added that he was confident Mr. Lambert would be found, due to his sailing experience.

"I don't have any concerns about him, because that's just George. He's a character," he said.

"It's hard to say whether he's missing. He might just be being elusive and not wanting to be found.

"He knows what he's doing. He might just be on a beach somewhere, sipping a pina colada."

Mr. Lambert has a son with his wife Brenda in St. Vincent. He also has a son, Akil, who works for Marine and Ports at Dockyard.

His ex-wife in Bermuda is Johnett Smith. After his rescue in December 2003, she told The Royal Gazette the experience had "shook him up" and that he was "a bit scared".

However, Ralph Richardson, Commodore of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, said Mr. Lambert was a very experienced sailor.

Mr. Richardson worked with him in the late 1980s when Mr. Lambert helped to transport passengers out to the submarine Enterprise.

"He is certainly a very experienced and skilled yachtsman," said Mr. Richardson.

"He is a very capable captain and has spent a lot of time at sea, so I suspect he is OK. He is quite resilient. I know he loves being at sea."

Mr. Lambert was accused of drug trafficking five years ago when he, Tristan Codrington, Ricardo Tucker, Gladwyn Simmons, plus Jamaican national Anthony Martin, were charged with conspiring to import 2,000 lbs of cannabis.

Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told a Supreme Court trial in April 2006 that Mr. Codrington and Mr. Tucker were flown to Florida in February 2004, to pilot the Regulus yacht back to Bermuda.

Mr. Lambert flew to Jamaica and then on to Haiti, where he joined the vessel along with what Mr. Mahoney described as "the cargo".

The Regulus arrived in Bermuda on March 9 but was later searched by Police, who found a piece of Duct Tape containing cannabis resin.

When officers searched Mr. Lambert's home in Ely's Harbour, Sandys, they found $22,000 in Jamaican currency, 686 grams of cannabis worth $34,300, plus Duct Tape, plastic wrappings and "a large amount of cannabis sawdust". Traces of the drug were also found on five buckets and an electric saw.

As Mr. Lambert was sentenced, prosecutor Wayne Caines said: "His home was a factory for the manufacture and distribution of marijuana.

"He took a gamble and he lost. He can only be described as a drug dealer."

Mr. Lambert and his co-defendants were acquitted of conspiracy to import drugs, with the exception of Mr. Codrington, who pleaded guilty part-way through the trial. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment.

Mr. Codrington, 23, was killed in a motorbike accident at Mangrove Bay in June 2007.