Kenichi Horie
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Kenichi Horie (堀江謙一 Horie Ken'ichi, September 8, 1938 - ) is a Japanese solo yachtsman.
In 1962 he crossed the Pacific Ocean in 94 days aboard a 19 foot sailboat (called the Mermaid) from Nishinomiya, Japan to San Francisco. He arrived at San Francisco with no passport or money and was promptly arrested. After learning of his voyage the mayor freed him and gave him a 30 day visa and was awarded the key to the city.
He wrote a book about his voyage, titled "Kodoku" ("Alone on the Pacific"), which was made into a movie (also titled "My Enemy, The Sea") in 1963 by Kon Ichikawa, which was nominated for a Golden Globe. The Mermaid is on display at the San Francisco Maritime Museum since her historic voyage.
He has made numerous solo voyages since then. In 1974 he circumnavigated from east to west, and in 1978 he circumnavigated from north to south. In 1985 he sailed a solar boat from Hawaii to Chichijima. In 1992 to 1993 he sailed from Hawaii to Okinawa in a pedal powered boat. In 1996 he sailed from Salinas, Ecuador to Tokyo in a solar boat made of recycled aluminum. This crossing covered 10,000 miles in 148 days which earned the Guinness World Record for the fastest ever crossing of the Pacific in a solar-powered boat.
In 1999 he sailed from San Francisco to Japan aboard a boat made primarily from recycled materials. The boat, Malt's Mermaid II, designed by Kennosuke Hayashi, was a 32.8 foot long, 17.4 foot wide, catamaran constructed from 528 beer kegs welded end-to-end in 5 rows (Horie joked that 500 of them were empty) The rigging consisted of two side-by-side masts with junk rig sails made from recycled plastic bottles. This boat is on display Okura Beach, Akashi.
In 2002 he sailed from Nishinomiya to San Francisco aboard the Mermaid III, which was a replica of the original Mermaid constructed from a variety of recycled materials, including whiskey barrels for the hull, aluminum cans for the mast and plastic soda bottles for the sails.
In 2008 he is planning to voyage from Hawaii to the Kii Peninsula in western Japan aboad the 9.5 meter, 3 tonne catamaran Suntory Mermaid II, built at Tsuneishi Shipyard. The voyage will be the first in a vessel propelled on wave power alone [1].
