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Guo Chuan

2K views 18 replies 13 participants last post by  killarney_sailor 
#1 ·
#2 ·
I can fill in a little bit about this tragedy from information that my wife has gotten from Chinese media and in particular the Chinese sailing community. Guo Chuan is ('was' unfortunately it seems) by far the most experienced Chinese sailor. He sailed around the world solo on an Open 40 and has done a variety of offshore races including the Clipper Race. The boat he had for this Transpacific record attempt was a French 93' trimaran racing machine. He had sailed this boat a lot including doing the Northeast Passage (crewed). Overall he had tens of thousands of miles on this boat.

The record he was going after (SF to Shanghai) had been set by a fully-crewed boat. No one seemed to know why he decided to go after the record singlehanded. The idea of sailing a 93 foot racing trimaran alone is more than intimidating to me.

He was in constant contact with his shore support including half an hour before the boat's speed dramatically dropped off on the shore party's GPS plot. In his last shore contact he was fine and said he was going to take down his asymmetric (imagine how big that sucker would be on a 93') for the night since the winds were around 20 knots and increasing. Waves were 5 to 6 feet so conditions were ideal for record setting. He may have been overtired from pushing the boat in these conditions. The max speed he had achieved was 34 knots.

The story posted here said it was the mainsail in the water, it actually was the assym. The Coast Guard went aboard to confirm that he was not onboard. The coasties reefed the mainsail and left the boat heading west. There is a very valuable vessel out there to be salvaged by someone.

His loss has been an enormous shock to the Chinese sailing community since he was the only real world-class (non-Olympic style) sailor in the country so was a major inspirational figure. It occurred to me that my wife, although a Canadian citizen, might now be the most experienced Chinese cruiser. For the last few years she has been a celebrity in the small, but very rich, Chinese sailing community.
 
#7 ·
I was just reading an interview with him where he was relating a story about how he fell overboard on the last voyage, and was able to grab a line and climb back onboard. He stated that falling overboard was his biggest fear.

Hard to understand then why you wouldn't look at tethering, and wearing a life jacket.
 
#4 ·
I heard this story on the radio this morning, it's very sad.

The bit about finding his PFD in the cabin makes it sound like he only had one PFD on board. I know they try to save weight everywhere they can, but I'd think I'd keep a an extra PFD around. Couldn't make that big a difference on a 93' boat.
 
#6 ·
Not sure what use a PFD is when you are single-handed on such a large, fast boat. Perhaps a tether might help but I get a sense that these fast big boat racers don't wear a tether unless the weather is quite bad which was not the case here.
 
#8 ·
Speaking of tethers, I'm going to post a picture and question about them in a new post.
 
#9 ·
My tether harness and inflatable PFD are one in the same. Would think he probably had a similar PFD with integrated harness. If it was his harness tether, no wonder that they haven't seen him. Even with just the main and the headsail in the water, that boat probably makes good time. If he fell off untethered, he'd have to be awfully lucky to be able to get back aboard. Surprizing that he would go untethered if he'd already fallen overboard once and only survived by luckily grabbing a line. I wear my Spinlock PFD/harness 24/7 when solo so I can clip on and go on deck instantly should there be a pressing need.
 
#10 ·
I think the 'pressing needs' on a boat like this are very different than on the kind of boats the rest of us sail. Apparently the tricky bit on recovering an asymm on this boat is untacking it in the very bow (don't know if it has a sprit as such and whether it is fixed; I imagine it is). A tether for doing that might make sense but I wonder if you fell off with a tether whether you could find a way back onboard.

Latest news is that two French guys from the support team were flying to Honolulu (probably there now) to go out to recover the boat using a fast powerboat. They stopped posting the boat's location to discourage others who might want to claim salvage rights (the boat is worth something like $10 million).
 
#11 ·
Here is a photo of the boat from a CG plane. Note that the asylum is in the water. If you look closely you can see where its tack is attached to the boat. To get the sail off you need to go out on that very narrow hull. I don't see lifelines but they might not show at this scale. It is an incredible sailing machine, remember it is 93'.

 
#12 ·
I would be very surprised if the chute that size w as not on a top down furler, and the tack were not on a tackline. In other words I seriously doubt that he had to go out on the bow to deploy or take in the chute.

Jeff
 
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#13 ·
Jeff
Some of the people on a Chinese sailing website said he had to go out there to get the tack and indicated it was his least favourite thing on the boat. He said to shore support, a half hour before the boat speed dropped that he was going to take the sail down for the night because the forecast was for stronger (not really strong but more than 20 knots). I assume the sail had a furler but something went wrong and it ended up unfurled in the water.
 
#15 · (Edited)
Sure looks like it would pretty unsafe to leave the cockpit without a tether to go forward on that narrow hull. I remember watching a fellow on a trimaran a few moorings over. He was pulling on a line stuck in his sail. It let go and he fell backward and if not for the trampoline between it's hulls would have been in the water. I don't see any trampoline on Guo's boat and without a good tether going forward would be like playing nautical Russian roulette IMO.
 
#16 ·
Alone on the ocean in a very big, very fast boat things can and do happen.

Let's not diminish a man whose sailing accomplishments exceed any of our own.
 
#19 ·
Heard a little more about this from a Chinese site that is not expert in big boat sailing so the translation may be a bit rough. The asymmetric was on a furler but the line (Spectra?) that the sail furls around broke, apparently when the sail was being lowered. Hence it went into the water. He was tethered but apparently fell off during the sail recovery. He apparently cut the tether after he realized he could not climb back onboard. I assume the boat was still doing several knots even with the sail in the water since the main was up so he would have been dragged often underwater I would think. There was also some damage to the stern of one of the outer hulls. He had reported that a couple of very large sharks had collided with the boat. He was afraid of something bigger hitting him. Don't know if the boat was particularly delicate but he had sailed it through the Northeast Passage. Don't know if there any ice issues there in summer.
 
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