Top Chinese solo sailor missing on record attempt to cross Pacific

by Sail-World.com on 27 Oct 2016 The first Chinese sailor to sail single handed around the world alone, Guo Chuan has gone missing while trying to break the record for crossing the Pacific alone. He was a few days into a voyage from San Francisco to Shanghai sailing alone on a large transoceanic trimaran.

The BBC reports that the US Coast Guard is now searching waters off Hawaii, where his boat was spotted without him onboard.

In an unofficial report a few hours ago, Guo's shore team received updates from Marine Rescue Cordination Centre the crew of USS Mankin Island has found and boarded the trimaran but did not find Guo. They collected all Guo's belongings aboard for his family. They lowered the mainsail around 11.50am. Search and rescue is continuing.

Mr Guo's support team had lost contact with him at about 07:00 GMT on Tuesday, says the BBC.

The sailor, who was the first Chinese person to sail solo around the world, left San Francisco on 18 October with the aim of reaching Shanghai within 20 days.

Shortly after his team lost contact with him, a search plane was sent to his last co-ordinates, about 600 miles (1,000 km) off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported that the boat, the Qingdao China, was spotted with its main sail snapped off and in the water.

Mr Guo was not seen onboard the 97ft (26.5m) trimaran.

US ships are now heading to the boat. A Coast Guard spokesman told AP news agency that Mr Guo had been in good health and was an experienced sailor, 'so that gives us some hope'.

Mr Guo was trying to break the current speed record for his journey, which is 21 days.

He was the first Chinese person to sail around the world alone when he completed his trans-navigation of the globe in a 12m yacht in 2013.