Yacht feared to have capsized after taking on water on Thursday, and US and Canadian search has been called off

One of Britain's youngest star yachtsmen is missing at sea along with three crew members after the boat they were sailing from the Caribbean is feared to have capsized in the Atlantic Ocean.

Andrew Bridge, 21, was skipper of the 12 metre (40ft) yacht Cheeki Rafiki, which ran into difficulties on Thursday on its way back to the UK from Antigua sailing week.

Paul Goslin, 56, Steve Warren, 52, and James Male, 23, were also on board.

Contact with the vessel was lost in the early hours of Friday after it began taking on water and diverted to the Azores.

A two-day search by US and Canadian aircraft and merchant vessels covering 4,146 sq miles was called off at dawn on Sunday. The four men are believed to have abandoned the vessel for a life raft.

Doug Innes, the director of the British yacht training and charter firm Stormforce Coaching, praised the extensive search efforts but said he was devastated they had been called off so soon.

Stormforce, the managing agent for the vessel, said in a statement: "The yacht Cheeki Rafiki, a Beneteau First 40.7, was on passage from the Caribbean to the UK with a crew of four yachtsmen. On Thursday she started taking on water.

"We were in contact with the skipper and at the time the yacht and crew were keeping the situation stable. They had not been able to ascertain where the water ingress was from and were diverting to the Azores.

"Unfortunately we lost contact during the early hours of Friday morning and we believe the crew abandoned to the life raft.

"Our thoughts are with the four yachtsmen and their families and we hope and pray for them all."

Bridge's aunt, Georgina Bridge, said: "Obviously the family are really concerned that the search has been suspended and we are really hoping that it will be resumed. We are holding out great hope that Andrew and the guys on board Cheeki Rafiki will be found.

"We are hopeful that they were able to launch a life raft and that they are still on board that, so we would just really like the search to be resumed."

The US Coast Guard said a crew from the 300 metre (1,000ft) Maersk Kure had spotted an overturned hull that matched the description of the Cheeki Rafiki on Saturday, but found no sign of the sailors.

Petty Officer Rob Simpson, a spokesman for the US Coastguard, said the Maersk Kure was not designed for search and rescue. Asked if others could have attended the scene where the hull was found, he said: "It is not possible to take a helicopter that far off shore - the search area is very far out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The grand scale of this is immense. Aircraft take four or five hours to get there and vessels can take over a week. This particular ship just happened to be in the area, they were not tasked specifically for this."

PO Simpson said that two beacons used by the Cheeki Rafiki crew, which he described as "about the size of a mobile phone", give off GPS coordinates of their last known location while their batteries last.

But he added: "We are not actually able to hone into them when on location with an aircraft and have stopped receiving signals from them."

In the search area there were 30 knot winds, a near gale, and between four and five metre (13ft-15ft) seas.

The search was called off at 5am local time on Sunday.

It is understood that the missing sailors made an initial call by satellite phone on Thursday about water on board the vessel. A second brief call four hours later said conditions were deteriorating, but gave no further information. Shortly afterwards, the US Coast Guard received a distress alert from Bridge and launched the search.

The four crew members were described as very experienced yachtsmen and Bridge, the youngest of the group, as a highly qualified skipper.

It is believed that Goslin and Warren, who were coastal skippers, had volunteered to do the transatlantic crossing.

Aged 21, Bridge had two high-level yachtmaster qualifications from the Royal Yachting Association, which meant he could skipper a yacht a minimum non-stop distance of 600 miles.

To qualify for the yachtmaster ocean certificate, a skipper must have been at sea continuously for at least 96 hours and the yacht must have been more than 50 miles from land while sailing a distance of at least 200 miles.

Bridge, nicknamed "the bear", was described as "undoubtedly one of the top bowmen in the country" in a biography on Stormforce's website. It said: "He was formerly bowman onboard Encore (First 40.7) when it won its fleet in the 2010 Round Britain & Ireland Race and was the 1st First 40.7 in the Fastnet 2009 race.

"He has won numerous RORC English channel races and has raced onboard Cheeki Rafiki with Ifan countless times, again with several podium positions to his name. Andy is a yachtmaster offshore and keelboat instructor."

The 21-year-old is believed to have competed in the Royal Ocean Racing Club Caribbean 600 event in Antigua in February this year, taking the role of first mate on the Cheeki Rafiki for the four-day race involving 60 boats.

Writing on the Stormforce website, a fellow crew member who was on board the Cheeki Rafiki described how an "electrical issue nobody could have foreseen" wiped out the vessel's sailing instruments and how they were stuck for four hours in a wind hole off the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We are aware of a missing yacht off the east coast of the US with four British nationals on board.

"We are in contact with the US Coast Guard and have offered consular assistance to the families."

Bridge is from Farnham in Surrey, Goslin from West Camel in Somerset, Warren from Bridgwater in Somerset and Male from Southampton.

• This article was amended on 19 May 2014 to correct the name of the Royal Yachting Association and to clarify that 30 knot winds are a near gale, rather than a slight to moderate sea breeze as an earlier version said.