Old IDEC

Effort to Recover Qingdao China

It's now been nearly two weeks since Chinese singlehanded sailor Guo Chuan went missing off his 97-ft trimaran Qingdao China while en route from San Francisco to Shanghai on a solo record attempt. After his tragic separation from the boat (formerly Francis Joyon's IDEC 2), the US Coast Guard conducted an aerial search of the area. The US Navy sent a large ship to Qingdao China's position to verify that Guo was not onboard and to tidy up the vessel. As time passed and any reasonable expectation of locating and recovering Guo from the water expired, so did the search for his whereabouts. While the sailor may have been lost, his maxi-trimaran is still out there drifting downwind west of Hawaii.

It's of great importance to the team to recover the vessel, not only to return it to his sponsors but also to complete Guo's mission. During the middle of last week, Guo Chuan Racing's project manager Liu Lingling traveled to Honolulu to oversee the rescue and salvage effort. First, the team flew in a crew of four top French professional sailors who have worked with the team, including the legendary Jacques Vincent and the team's boat captain Quentin Monegier. The team then found a local boat captain named Brandon and chartered his 86-ft work vessel Betty H. At a cruising speed of about 8 knots, the Betty H is currently motoring toward Qingdao China's position, aided by an onboard GPS tracker. Qingdao is drifting farther away in the east-to-northeast tradewinds and was believed to be 1,200 miles away when the team left Honolulu last week. They believe that the journey to reach Guo's trimaran will take about a week.

The goal will be to sail the big red trimaran back to China, but with a large headsail dragging in the water and after a couple of weeks at sea unattended, there may be unforeseen damage to the boat. According to Lingling, the worst-case scenario will be to tow Qingdao China to Honolulu, but the goal is to sail the boat first to the team in Qingdao and then up to Shanghai to complete Guo's mission of sailing from San Francisco to Shanghai. After the boat reaches Shanghai, it will again return to the team in Qingdao. Ideas floated for the boat's future range from turning it into a sailing museum dedicated to Guo Chuan to using it to inspire and train other Chinese sailors.

As Eric Tabarly inspired legions of French sailors, Guo Chuan has undoubtedly inspired a future generation of sailors in China. Since leaving the corporate world, Guo Chuan dedicated his life to sailing and became the first Chinese sailor to set multiple world sailing records. From solo around the world on a Class 40 to the Northeast Passage on the maxi-tri, Guo's legacy will be one that will be remembered for many years to come. In the words of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, “The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.” This sums up Guo's all-too-brief but brilliant sailing career.

Latitude 38 would like to offer our most sincere condolences and well wishes for Guo's team and family. Since sailing out of San Francisco on his final voyage, Guo Chuan has become our family as well.

- ronnie simpson