Gerry Roufs (1953 – January 1997) was a Canadian competitive

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

Sailing career

Roufs was born in Montreal, Canada. In 1978, along with crewman Charles Robitaille, he placed second at the

470 __NOTOC__ Year 470 ( CDLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Severus and Iordanes (or, less frequently, year 1223 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination ...

class World Championships held in Marstrand, Sweden.

Death

He disappeared at sea in his boat, ''Groupe LG 2'' in January 1997, in the South

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, while taking part in the 1996–1997 edition of the

Vendée Globe --> The Vendée Globe is a single-handed (solo) non-stop, unassisted round the world yacht race. The race was founded by Philippe Jeantot in 1989, and since 1992 has taken place every four years. It is named after the Département of Vendé ...

, the round-the-world, single-handed, non-stop

yacht race Yacht racing is a sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marked by buoys or o ...

. Roufs was in second place in the race when his

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece * Argus (Greek myth), several characters in Greek mythology * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer in the United Kingdom Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

position-indicating beacon ceased to transmit. His boat, ''Groupe LG 2'', was found on the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

in July 1997. His last known position was , 369 nm south of

Point Nemo In geography, a pole of inaccessibility is the farthest (or most difficult to reach) location in a given landmass, sea, or other topographical feature, starting from a given boundary, relative to a given criterion. A geographical criterion of i ...

, the Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility.

References

1953 births 1990s missing person cases 1996 Vendee Globe sailors 1997 deaths 470 class sailors Canadian male sailors (sport) Canadian Vendee Globe sailors IMOCA 60 class sailors People lost at sea Single-handed sailors Sailors (sport) from Montreal 20th-century Canadian sportsmen {{Canada-yachtracing-bio-stub

Sailing career

Death

See also

References