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SAILING

Swedish sailor missing after tropical storm Earl

A 57-year old Swedish sailor is missing off the coast of Florida following an apparent boating accident in the wake of tropical storm Earl.

Published: 5 September 2010 17:52 CEST
Swedish sailor missing after tropical storm Earl
Coast Guard vessel offf Atlantic City, NJ coast as Hurricane Earl hits on Friday

The US Coast Guard found the boat of Ola Möller on Tuesday about ten kilometres from shore. The boat had been heavily damaged with metre-long scrapes on its underside, the Aftonbladet newspaper reports.

Möller was nowhere to be found, however.

An experienced sailor and thrill-seeker who hails from the Stockholm suburb of Täby, Möller is believed to have been on the island of Bimini, located in the Bahamas, east of Miami.

The last time anyone heard from Möller was on August 27th when he sent a mobile phone text message to his son indicating he was on an island in the Bahamas.

Möller’s apparent boating accident took place around the same time that tropical storm Earl, which at one point had been upgraded to a hurricane, swept across the region, bringing 30 metre high waves.

Coast guard authorities have yet to begin a formal search.

“It’s a big ocean; we don’t know where we should look,” Tom Gorgol of the US Coast Guard in Florida, told the newspaper.

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RACE

Gabart, the record breaking French sailor in a hurry

A sailing prodigy, Frenchman Francois Gabart on Sunday crushed the world record for the fastest non-stop solo navigation of the world on his first attempt.

Published: 17 December 2017 11:43 CET
Gabart, the record breaking French sailor in a hurry
Sailing prodigy Francois Gabart celebrating in Brest. Photo: Damien Meyer/AFP

Driven by a desire to discover the world at full speed, the sailor completed his tour in 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds.

“The job of a sailor is nothing more than managing problems and dealing with difficulties,” said Gabart, an engineer by trade.

The winner of the 2013 Vendee Globe and 2014 Route de Rhum yacht races, the 34-year-old father-of-two has been sailing for 20 years.

Trailblazer

“He likes to be a pioneer, he is not an upstart but someone in a hurry to discover things, to demonstrate things to himself and others,” said Christian Le Pape, who has known Gabart for 10 years.

“I wouldn't classify him as a genius in terms of ease at the helm but he has an ability to process information that is out of the ordinary like Michel Desjoyeaux or Armel Le Cleach.”

Desjoyeaux, a double winner of the Vendee Globe who mentored the engineer, said Gabart was given the the name “Excel spreadsheet” by his team.

“At the arrival of the Vendee Globe, we found 74 markings on the boat, but the race had taken 78 days,” said Desjoyeaux.

“In fact, he had noted the number of times he had brushed his teeth. He's not crazy but very rational.”

Weather and poetry

Gabart comfortably recognises his square side.

“I'm pretty reasonable and rational,” said Gabart, the son of a dentist and brother to two sisters.

“I've been like that since I was 10-years-old!

“My parents tell me that when I was a kid, I was very good at certain things.”

A sailor who doesn't like to swim, Gabart first dreamed of being a metrologist as a child.

“At 10 I was reading books about whether and knew things that no one understood at that age,” he said.

“I'm passionate about the weather.

“We can be wrong but we can almost see in to the future, I find it extraordinary to be able to know what will happen.

“There is a poetic side too, to watch a cloud is beautiful.”

By Sabine Colpart