Chinese Singlehander Missing

Chinese singlehander Guo Chuan, 51, has gone missing while trying to break the solo record for sailing across the Pacific from San Francisco to Shanghai. His shore team lost contact with him around 3 a.m. Hawaii time yesterday (3 p.m. Beijing time). Personnel from Maritime Rescue Coordination Center China notified US Coast Guard Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu.

An HC-130 Hercules airplane from Coast Guard Air Station Barber’s Point, Oahu, was launched to initiate a search. The air crew located Chuan’s 97-ft trimaran Qingdao China, but did not see the solo sailor on deck. According to Chinese radio station CRI, the aircraft spotted the mainsail in the water, "broken off Guo’s trimaran." However, the photo taken by the Coast Guard clearly shows the reefed main right where it should be — but there appears to be a headsail in the water.

As of Wednesday morning, the tracker shows the boat due west of Kauai and about 620 miles northwest of Oahu, sailing at 10-11 knots, and ahead of the reference time set in 2015 by Giovanni Soldini and crew on the VOR70 monohull Maserati.

Chuan sailed out of San Francisco Bay on October 18 to challenge Maserati‘s time of 21 days and to set a new solo multihull record. Qingdao China was formerly named IDEC. Francis Joyon sailed her to a solo nonstop around-the-world record in 2008. In 2015, Guo Chuan used the trimaran to set a world record for the Northeast Passage nonstop with an international crew. Chuan was the first Chinese person to sail around the world when he completed a circumnavigation in 2013.