Home on the Web

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Friday, April 2, 1999

Solo sailor cruising
on beer barrels

Let's call him the recycled sailor.

Kenichi Horie, a 60-year-old sailor from Osaka, Japan, is heading to Honolulu from San Francisco and then on to Japan in a sailboat made from beer barrels.

He will be sailing alone in the specially designed craft. Daily checks on his progress can be made by tacking over to http://www.malts-mermaid.com.

Horie has become something of a Japanese sailing legend, as he previously sailed from San Francisco to Okinawa in the world's smallest ocean yacht, just 2.8 meters (about 91/4 feet) long.

In 1974, he made a solo no-port-of-call voyage around the world.

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"Home on the Web" is a weekly Friday feature of the Star-Bulletin.
Richard Borreca can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com