A Chinese sailor attempting to break the world record for crossing the Pacific Ocean alone has gone missing.
The U.S. Coast Guard has ended a search for Guo Chuan, who left San Francisco on October 18, after rescuers boarded his drifting yacht and found that he was not on board, AFP reported Thursday.
Guo's support team lost contact with him Tuesday, shortly after which a search plane was sent to his last coordinates, around 600 miles off the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
The sailor's boat, the Qingdao China, was spotted with its main sail broken off the vessel, Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Guo was attempting to sail from San Francisco to Shanghai in 20 days. The current record speed for the journey is 21 days, set by a crew onboard an Italian Maserati ship in 2015. The sailor previously became the first Chinese person to sail around the world in 2013.
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Conor is a staff writer for Newsweek covering Africa, with a focus on Nigeria, security and conflict.
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