Volvo Ocean Race: Chilean Police Investigate Sailor's Disappearance

Puerto Montt, Chile, April 3 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Apr, 2018 ) :Chilean police on Tuesday began investigating the disappearance of British round-the-world sailor John Fisher, who was lost overboard from the Volvo Ocean Race yacht SHK/Scallywag.

The racing yacht made landfall in Puerto Montt in southern Chile at dawn on Tuesday. Fisher's bereft crewmates filed ashore without comment, an AFP journalist said. Crewmembers were interviewed "and on the instructions of the prosecutor, members of the homicide brigade and the forensic police carried out their investigations in relation to the accident," police spokesman Cesar Fonseca said.

The 47-year-old was lost at sea after being swept overboard on March 26 while on watch, some 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) west of Cape Horn on the tip of South America.

Race organizers said Fisher had unclipped his safety tether before a swinging boom knocked him into the sea.

He was wearing survival gear but a desperate search by Scallywag failed to find him and the yacht was forced to head for port as weather conditions deteriorated. The fleet set off from Auckland on March 18 on the toughest stretch of the around-the-world epic.

The 14,075 kilometre leg takes the yachts across inhospitable waters from New Zealand to Cape Horn and then up South America's eastern coast to the Brazilian city of Itajai.