CONCERN was mounting last night for the safety of the crew of a vessel taking part in the Tall Ships Race from Newcastle.

Organisers of the race said the Smialy, with three adults and five youngsters on board, has been out of radio contact for more than two days, last making contact with officials at 5am on Saturday.

The Humber Coastguard has been alerted about the missing Polish ketch, which was taking part in the class C section.

The ship, one of the smallest vessels in the race at 18 metres in length, had managed to get 15 miles from Newcastle in bad seas when it last reported its position.

Organisers said that, in the a worst-case scenario of a sinking, an automatic alarm would activate - but last night nothing had been heard.

The news came as it emerged that half of the tall ships that set sail from the North-East last Thursday had retired because of "horrendous" conditions in the North Sea.

Of the 86 vessels that started from the Tyne to Fredrikstad, 44 have retired through sea sickness, snapped masts and ripped sails.

Corinne Hitching, spokeswoman for Sail Training International, which has organised the race, said last night that four vessels had failed to report in the morning's radio schedule.

She said: "Only one of those, the Polish Smialy, is causing concern, having now missed four reports.

"The race committee is in contact with all relevant coastguards to try to establish Smialy's whereabouts."

Ms Hitching said the weather conditions had been a challenge, not because the winds have been high - reaching force seven at worst - but because of the direction they have been coming from - the north, and east of north.

"With rough and choppy seas, it has been making sailing uncomfortable for those on board," she said.

All ships taking part in the race are supposed to report their positions twice daily. After the third day without contact, the situation is taken "very seriously".

Ms Hitching said: "The Humber Coastguard have been alerted and they are doing all they can to activate a search.

"The crew may just have decided to disappear into a port without informing anybody, or their radio may have malfunctioned.

"In a worst-case scenario, they have a system which would automatically be activated and would send out an alarm."

A Humber Coastguard official said it was trying to establish contact with the vessel.

She said: "We are contacting all vessels and asking them to report any sightings.

"We are also contacting ports in the UK, as well as in Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.

"At the moment, we haven't a search area. The ship may be out of communication, but perfectly safe. We do not know at the moment."

Some of the retiring vessels chose to return to the UK rather than continue across the North Sea, but many are now leaving to head over to Fredrikstad for the four days of port festivities, from tomorrow to Saturday.

John Reid, captain of the Jean de la Lune, said: "We only managed to get as far as Blyth. There were pretty horrible conditions - not a lot of wind, but colossal seas.

"Two crew members gave cause for concern because they were so seasick, and the safest thing to do was to come back to port and retire."

The Prince William, crewed predominantly by North-East youngsters, had to pull out after going to the aid of another vessel.