Dave wrote:
To settle a discussion I'm having off-list, has anyone ever experienced,
witnessed or heard of sinking a Pearson Ensign by burying the rail and
taking water over the gunwale?
Were the Boundaries Pushed Too Far?

May 14 - Cape Town, South Africa

On October 8 of last year, 61-year-old insurance man Frank Guernsey
departed his homeport of Redondo Beach aboard his 22-ft Pearson Electra
MF intending to sail 10,000 miles singlehanded to Cape Horn and then
across the Southern Ocean to Cape Town, South Africa. According to a
front page story in last Saturday's L.A. Times, he refused to take along
a long distance radio, a liferaft, or even the EPIRB his wife had bought
for him. He's not been heard from since leaving Catalina, and is now
more than a month overdue.

If you think taking a Pearson Electra around the Horn and across the
Southern Ocean is a suicide mission, we agree with you. But Guernsey was
not without somewhat similar experience. He'd previously sailed around
the Horn in a Pearson Gladiator, which is only 24 feet, and had
previously sailed to Japan, Hawaii and Tahiti. During his 128-day
passage on the Gladiator, he lost 30 pounds, gashed his head, and broke
three ribs when he fell from the rigging onto a stanchion. Compared to
an Electra, a Gladiator is a big boat with a much larger cabin.

Mary Guernsey, Frank's wife, is trying to get the U.S. Coast Guard or
the South African Coast Guard to search for him. The Coasties are
sympathetic, but where along the 10,000-mile route are they supposed to
start looking?

We hate to say it, but if we had to speculate, it would be that Guernsey
never even made it to Cape Horn. The way we figure it, he would have
almost certainly crossed paths with Hurricane Kenna off the Mexican
coast - Kenna being the worst Mexican hurricane in 50 years, packing
winds of 145 knots.