Chinese sailor Guo Chuan, who set out to break the Pacific crossing sailing record aboard his trimaran Qingdao China (formerly Idec Sport), has disappeared at sea. His team, who stayed ashore lost contact with the skipper on October 25, 2016 at about 3:00 p.m. (Beijing time), noting a deceleration of the trimaran. The Chinese sailing star had left on October 18 to attempt to sail solo to Shanghai from San Francisco in less than 20 days (the current record is 21 days).
The same day, a search plane flew over the trimaran, adrift off Hawaii, without seeing the skipper on deck. On October 27, two U.S. Coast Guard vessels reached the boat after more than 10 hours of sailing. The USS Mankin Island crew searched Qingdao China without finding any trace of the Chinese skipper. The search continued at sea and allowed rescuers to recover a torn sail from the water. From now on, these searches are suspended.
Two possible scenarios
With the sea and wind information assumed at the time of the accident, Guo Chuan's team, on the navigator's website, put forward two hypotheses on the disappearance of the sailor.
Scenario 1
The skipper was sailing under gennaker and 1 reefed mainsail in 13 to 20 knots of wind downwind. A reasonable configuration for these conditions. At the end of the day, he decided to roll the gennaker to sail even more safely at night. As he tried to drop it on the windward side (a tricky maneuver in stronger winds when sailing solo), he let go of the halyard and dropped the sail. While preventing the sail from falling into the water, he was thrown overboard on the starboard side, either towards the float or towards the front beam.
Scenario 2
The skipper was sailing under J1 and 1 reef mainsail in 13 to 20 knots of wind downwind. The safest configuration to sail at night. The gennaker was furled and stowed, but for some reason the halyard or gennaker furler broke. Guo first furled his J1 to slow the boat down, before dealing with the gennaker, which fell into the water.
As he was bringing the sail back to the starboard float, he untied his lifeline to change position on the boat. A bad wave brought the gennaker back into the water, dragging the sailor into the water.
In both scenarios, the Chinese navigator had to be equipped with a life jacket, a lifeline and a light beacon. Therefore, he had to detach himself to perform maneuvers.
A world tour and two records to his credit
At 51 years old, Guo Chuan fell in love with sailing late in life, when he set foot aboard a 40-foot keelboat at the age of 33 in Hong Kong. His determination allowed him to become a professional sailor and to achieve many "firsts" in China, including two world records.
Guo Chuan is the first Chinese sailor to complete the Volvo Ocean Race in 2008-2009, but also the first Chinese to complete the Mini-Transat in 2011. In 2013, he also became the first Chinese sailor to complete a circumnavigation in Class40. Finally, in 2015, he set a new record by winning the World record for the Arctic Ocean crossing by the North-East passage.
