Kenichi Horie

Kenichi Horie (堀江謙一, Horie Ken'ichi^?, born September 8, 1938 in Osaka) is a Japanese solo yachtsman. Horie first rose to prominence when he became the first person to sail solo across the Pacific Ocean in 1962. He has made other significant solo voyages, usually involving boats exhibiting some sort of environmentally friendly theme, including his 2008 voyage across the Western Pacific Ocean in a wave-powered boat.

In 1962, at the age of 23, Horie became the first person to make a solo crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Leaving Nishinomiya, Japan on May 12, in 94 days (on August 11) he arrived in San Francisco, California, U.S. aboard a 19-foot (5.8 m) sailboat called the Mermaid. He arrived with no passport or money and was promptly arrested. Despite Horie’s best effort to legally depart from Japan, because of lack of precedent for international travel on a small sailboat, he was not able to obtain a passport, or an adequate amount of foreign currency. After learning of his voyage the mayor freed him and gave him a 30-day visa, and he was awarded the key to the city.

Horie wrote a book about his voyage, titled Alone on the Pacific (Kodoku), which was made into a movie Alone Across the Pacific (also titled My Enemy, The Sea) in 1963 by Kon Ichikawa. The movie was nominated for a Golden Globe award. The Mermaid has been on display at the San Francisco Maritime Museum since her historic voyage although it is in storage and not on display pending building renovations (as explained by park officials on July 16, 2016).

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