Missing Ventura Man’s Boat Found 1,000 Miles From Hawaii

A Ventura man’s 27-foot sailboat has been found floating unmanned in the ocean about 1,000 miles north of Hawaii, more than a month after he had planned to arrive in the islands, Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.

Robert L. Goodspeed, 55, left from Ventura Harbor on June 20, expecting to arrive in Hilo on the island of Hawaii on July 10. When he failed to arrive by July 21, his girlfriend called authorities, and the island’s Coast Guard began a search, said Paul Rhynard, a Coast Guard spokesman in Alameda.

Authorities called every marina in Hawaii seeking people who had seen Goodspeed or his sloop. On Aug. 8, after receiving no information on Goodspeed’s whereabouts, Coast Guard officials began searching with cutter boats and aircraft. After eight days, the search was called off.

But Friday, a Greek freighter, the Chetumal, bound for South Carolina came upon Goodspeed’s boat listing in the sea. The ship circled the boat attempting to make contact before sending a man aboard to investigate.

Goodspeed was not aboard, and the boat’s decks were partly flooded by seawater and sewage. The freighter recovered the ship’s charts, equipment and log, its last entry dated July 6 about 470 nautical miles east of the islands.

Goodspeed’s boat was outfitted with a satellite navigation system and two emergency locater beacons that could be clicked on manually or would automatically alert the Coast Guard, via satellite, if the boat capsized. A life raft was still strapped to the sloop’s bow.

Goodspeed had not been in radio contact with anyone throughout the trip, Rhynard said. “It’s a risky situation, regardless of experience, when you sail by yourself,” he said.

Goodspeed left from Ventura West Marina, where he had lived aboard his small boat since June 1998.

“He was a very, very nice man,” said Sue Buck, an office assistant at the marina. “He seemed to love his boat. The neighbors are all talking about it. It’s so sad.”

Long-distance “cruises” by Ventura West Marina residents are not uncommon, Buck said. Five or six residents take a long-distance trip every year. Few do so alone, Buck said.

Although authorities aren’t assuming Goodspeed is dead and won’t speculate on what happened, they have no plans to resume a search for him.

“We never know [what happened] until we find conclusive evidence. We may never know,” Rhynard said. “That’s the terribly sad part.”