Search for Chinese sailor suspended
Print Edition
THE US Coast Guard suspended its Pacific Ocean search for star Chinese sailor Guo Chuan after searchers boarded his drifting yacht and confirmed he was not there but that his lifejacket had been found.
His support team said yesterday that Guo had gone missing after being thrown into the water by high winds on Wednesday.
The 51-year-old was attempting to set a new solo trans-Pacific world record.
Guo “was a professional mariner with a deep passion for sailing,” the Coast Guard’s Captain Robert Hendrickson said in a statement yesterday.
“Our deepest condolences go out not only to his family and friends but also to his racing team and the sailing community.”
Footage released by the Coast Guard showed Guo’s trimaran Qingdao China drifting across the waves hundreds of kilometers west of Hawaii, its red sail emblazoned “Peace and Sport.”
Both a US Navy helicopter crew and a Coast Guard Hercules aircraft overflying the vessel had previously been unable to contact Guo, it said.
In 2013, Guo, 51, became the first Chinese sailor to complete a nonstop solo circumnavigation of the globe and he is by far the country’s biggest sailing star.
He set off from San Francisco on October 18 in an attempt to set a record crossing of the Pacific, but his team lost contact with him on Tuesday.
They alerted US authorities, and searchers from the USS Makin Island amphibious ship reached the Qingdao China yesterday.
“The boat crew confirmed Chuan was not on the vessel although his life jacket remains aboard,” the Coast Guard said.
Searchers lowered the mainsail and left the Qingdao China at sea, it added, saying that his racing team was arranging to salvage the vessel.
The team said Guo’s personal items had been recovered.
In a diary entry for October 20, posted by his team, Guo said that listening to a recording of his two sons’ laughter on his computer was “the world’s most beautiful song, the song that puts me most at ease.”
Guo had previously said that his greatest fear was to fall in the water, Xinhua news agency reported, citing him as saying: “I fear being separated from the ship when I am sailing solo.”
Guo’s team said they had observed that his speed had slowed on Tuesday and attempted to contact him, but he did not answer either satellite calls or Internet communications.
The US searchers had found a broken sail in the water, they added.
Chinese fans expressed their fears for the mariner, with one writing online that it was “likely he was adjusting or repairing the sail when he was struck or an accident occurred and he fell.”
The Coast Guard said it was called when Guo’s team had not received notification from him for 24 hours.
The sailor had previously been “in constant contact” with his shore team and family and was “not likely to miss scheduled calls,” it added.
The Coast Guard search had covered an area of around 12,000 square kilometers over two days.
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