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Guo Chuan, an oceangoing Chinese adventurer, set off on a trimaran from San Francisco last week, hoping to establish his latest sailing record with a 20-day sprint to Shanghai.
But on Thursday, the American Coast Guard said it had found Mr. Guo’s 97-foot, red-hulled boat drifting and unmanned in the Pacific Ocean almost halfway to his destination. His life jacket was still onboard.
Officially, Mr. Guo remains missing. But the Coast Guard said it had suspended its search and offered commiserations to his family.
Mr. Guo “was a professional mariner with a deep passion for sailing,” Capt. Robert Hendrickson, the chief of response for the Coast Guard’s 14th District, which oversaw the search, said by email.
“Our deepest condolences go out not only to his family and friends but also to his racing team and the sailing community,” Captain Hendrickson said.
Mr. Guo’s latest grueling venture had drawn attention across China, even more so after his support team announced that it had lost contact with himon Tuesday and that his boat had lost speed. The team had chronicled his journey on a website, from the excitement of passing under the Golden Gate Bridge to the agonizing wait for word from his boat.
Onboard, Mr. Guo liked to listen to a recording of his young son laughing, he said in one of the last reports from his trip. “That’s the most beautiful song in the world,” he said. “It’s the most comforting for me.”
On Thursday, a message from his support team said the Coast Guard ship had “collected all Guo’s belongings aboard for his family,” adding, “They lowered the mainsail.”
Mr. Guo, 51, had come late to his love of sailing, but he made up for that with driven energy. “I’ve been terrified, despaired, but never given up,” he said, according to The Paper, a Shanghai news website.
He had made a living managing commercial satellite launches and threw himself into sailing in his 30s, after going on a yacht in Hong Kong and becoming enchanted. He has logged a number of firsts and other achievements, including a world record in 2013 for the fastest solo nonstop circumnavigation of the world in a 40-foot yacht, a journey that took 137 days.
“No. 1 sailor in China,” said his description on his Facebook page.
In his latest voyage, Mr. Guo intended to sail from San Francisco to Shanghai within 20 days, breaking the solo record of 21 days.
At a time when Beijing and Washington have been sparring over tensions in the South China Sea, Mr. Guo said his journey was meant to convey friendship between the two sides.
But he also took patriotic pride in being China’s pioneering professional ocean adventurer. Previously, the established route for record-breaking sailing attempts across the Pacific was from America to Japan, he said, according to The Paper.
“Now finally it’s settled on China as a benchmark, and this shows that our motherland has become a global focus,” Mr. Guo said. “I feel very proud of this.”
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
