A petition to help release the kidnapped UK yachting couple being held by Somali gunmen has been started at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Pay-Ransom/.

It reads ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to rethink and deviate away from current government policy not to allow ransoms to be paid to Somalian pirates, in order that Paul and Rachel Chandler may be freed
and allowed to return to their families!.’

The Chandlers, who were taken off their Rival 38, Lynn Rival back in October while on passage from the Seychelles to Tanzania, have deterioated physically and mentally since through stress and poor diet. They are ‘priced’ at £4 million by their captors who have threatened to kill them if the ransom is not paid.

Rachel, 56, and Paul, 60, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent have been separated which has not helped their morale. They were visited by a doctor and journalists from the French news agency AFP, last week. During this visit Mrs Chandler said: ‘We need to be together because we have not much time left. Please help us, these people are not treating us well.’