HARBOUR authorities are trying to track down a boat which demolished a marker buoy in a high speed hit and run crash on the River Exe.

The green starboard buoy numbered 31 was hit in the dark by a fast moving vessel that is likely to have suffered serious damage to its bows.

The Exeter Port Authority have now appealed to sailors and other boatmen for information about the accident which is thought to have occurred after 9.30pm last Friday.

They hope other river users may have seen the damaged boat either on the night or after it was taken out of the water for repair. A search of the river has so far proved fruitless.

The impact left the buoy, which is sited off Lympstone, with an enormous gash in its side and the top peeled away and ripped off completely.

The damaged buoy, which marks a narrow part of the channel, was removed by a workboat and has now been replaced. A temporary Notice to Mariners was issued on Saturday advising that the mark had been removed and telling sailors to ‘navigate with caution.

An update was posted yesterday (Monday) to say the buoy had been replaced.

The Port Authority issued its appeal for information in a Facebook post that said: ‘On the evening of Friday the 26th of August No. 31 starboard lateral mark (off Lympstone) was struck by a vessel and damaged beyond repair.

‘Can you please help identify who caused this damage? We believe the vessel must have been travelling at considerable speed and possibly would have sustained significant damage.

‘We think this vessel may now have been removed from the estuary. If you have any information please contact the Harbour Masters office in confidence on email: [email protected] or telephone 01395 223 265. Please note a replacement mark has now been put back on station.’

The appeal has already attracted some comments from river users, one of whom said they believed there had been another collision.

One member of Starcross Yacht Club, which is at Powderham, wrote: ‘We were nearby on shore at Starcross YC that evening until 9.30pm.

‘We remarked there were at least 2 high speed RIBs or speedboats running at significant speed between 31 and 27 in almost pitch black. I am sure one was not evening running any nav lights.’

‘Having said that, I did not hear a collision and so my guess would be the damage happened later than 9.30pm.’

Another reply said there had been another collision on the same night: It read: “Some one had their boat badly damaged, a boat had gone in the back of it.

Another comment said: ‘Obviously struck in the dark, therefore was the light working at the time? That could be the reason it was struck?’

Others joked that the buoy may have been attacked by a shark or suggested the Port Authority ought to look on the seabed.