Capsized Yacht Boarded; Sailor Presumed Lost

Divers from a French tug reached the capsized sloop of yachtsman Mike Plant on Wednesday, but the experienced sailor, who made three solo trips around the world, was not on board and was presumed lost at sea, the Coast Guard reported.

A memorial service is scheduled Monday in Minnetonka Beach, Minn.

The French vessel Malabar examined Plant’s yacht, Coyote, about 500 miles northwest of the Azores Islands, maritime officials in Brest, France, said.

Friends and family of the adventurer had hoped that Plant had managed to survive in one of the 60-foot boat’s watertight compartments or escaped aboard its raft, which is stocked with provisions.

But the French divers discovered the partially inflated raft inside the cabin, the officials said.

Divers attached a radio beacon to the hull so the Coast Guard can locate it and continue the investigation. The Coast Guard said it was calling off the search for Plant.

Plant set out Oct. 16 from New York on his way to Les Sables d’Olonne, France, to take part in a round-the-world solo race, which started Sunday.

He informed a passing freighter three days later that he had lost electrical power. The last contact with Plant was believed to have been a beacon signal Oct. 27.

A freighter that spotted the yacht Sunday reported that Coyote’s hull was missing the keel bulb, an 8,400-pound attachment that provides ballast.

Plant, who would have turned 42 Saturday, began his career as a competitive around-the-world solo sailor in 1986, when he entered the 1986 BOC Challenge. Despite capsizing in the Indian Ocean, Plant won the small-boat class of that race, sailing a 50-foot yacht he built and finishing four days ahead of his closest rival.

In 1989, sailing a larger boat, Plant set an American single-handed record of 134 days in the first Vendee Globe Challenge yacht race. In 1990, slowed by a severe case of the flu, Plant came in seventh in the 60-foot division of that year’s BOC Challenge.

Plant learned how to sail as a boy growing up on Lake Minnetonka outside Minneapolis. He built his first boat when he was 12 and attributed his tactile skills, in part, to the fact that he was born legally blind, and gained his sight gradually as he grew up. Over the years, he worked as an Outward Bound instructor, a carpenter and home builder and a charter boat skipper in the Aegean and the Caribbean.