Mother Holds Out Hope for Man Missing in Sea He Loved

Many of David Dufau’s friends and relatives have given him up for dead.

But Jean Dufau lives every day for the hope that her youngest son--who went sailing in frigid waters Thursday and never returned--will walk through her front door.

“I have even now so much confidence in David’s ability not only as a sailor but also in his physical strength and enthusiasm for living,” Jean Dufau said Tuesday from her Ventura home overlooking the ocean. “If anyone could come through an event like this, he could.”

Experienced sailor David Dufau, 37, has been presumed dead since Saturday when the U.S. Coast Guard called off an intensive search into his disappearance on his 18-foot catamaran, Euphoria.

Dufau’s wife, Mary K. Lynch, reported him missing a little past midnight Friday after he failed to return at 6:30 p.m. from a two-hour trip to Anacapa Island.

John Dufau, 43, the eldest of the three Dufau brothers, said the hope he first harbored when he heard of the disappearance has gradually ebbed away.

“The chances are remote to say the least,” said John Dufau, an employee for Pacific Bell. “I’ve started to accept the fact that he’s gone.”

During the past four days, the Dufau family has been together constantly, struggling to accept the disappearance, he said.

All have joined together to help Lynch, Dufau’s wife of 14 years and a librarian in Port Hueneme, get through the tragedy.

David escaped many sailing scrapes after he became addicted to the ocean when he was 12, his mother said.

At that time, the family had been left a small inheritance that she thought should be used to travel to Europe for the summer.

But during the family discussion on how they would use the money, David Dufau persuaded his father Fabien, 74, and two brothers that they should buy a sailboat with some of the money.

That boat was the first of many that kept David Dufau occupied throughout the years.

He bought old boats, fixed them up and sold them. He took friends and family members out on afternoon voyages across the waves. And he brought home trophy after trophy from sailing competitions.

But he cared less for winning than for the actual sailing, Jean Dufau said.

“He loved the sailing just for the love of sailing,” she said.

David Dufau was 3 when the Dufaus moved from the San Francisco area to Ventura.

He attended Ventura Senior High School and went to Ventura College for a year before graduating from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

He obtained his master’s degree from Los Angeles City College, where he majored in psychology and education. Then he earned his teaching credential.

David Dufau went to work as an elementary schoolteacher in Los Angeles, but it was not long, his mother said, before his love of the ocean drew him back to Ventura.

Eleven years ago he began teaching special education at Meiners Oaks School in Ojai. This year’s class included 14 children, between the ages of 9 and 12, who have emotional problems or minor learning disabilities.

Two psychologists came to the elementary school campus Monday to break the news about the beloved teacher’s disappearance to the school’s 600 children, school Principal Marvin Van Wagner said.

“He is missed by the kids,” Van Wagner said.

Van Wagner said David Dufau’s enthusiasm also is missed by the teachers, who have spent lunch hours the past two days quietly reminiscing about the man who would often sacrifice his free class periods to play with the children in the schoolyard.

“He cared for the kids as an outside interest above and beyond the classroom,” Van Wagner said.

David Dufau extended the same caring to his 99-year-old grandmother whom he visited once a day, Jean Dufau said.

His grandmother, in the hospital with a broken hip, cannot accept David’s absence, his mother said.

Nor can old family friends or former sailing buddies.

They have dwelt for days on what circumstances could possibly have undermined the proficient sailor whose happiest moments were spent gliding over the water.

Their ideas have run the gamut from a whale bumping the boat to foul play on the high seas to a heart attack.

Doris Cowart of Ventura, whose husband taught business classes to David in high school and continued to sail with him, said she was shocked when she heard the news.

“Even now, I keep thinking, ‘Maybe he’s out on that island,’ ” Cowart said. “Wouldn’t that be great?”