Jure Šterk

Šterk was born in Zagreb, which was then part of Yugoslavia. He grew up in Vinica in White Carniola and attended a high school in Črnomelj. He lived in Ljubljana for some time, and received his captain's licence in 1977.

He competed in the Minitransat transatlantic race (Transat 6,50) three times, crossed the Atlantic Ocean eight times, the Indian Ocean twice, and the Pacific Ocean once. Between 1991 and 1994, he single-handedly sailed around the world, in his own 6.5 meter-long boat. He made most of his boats by himself.

In December 2007, at age 70, Šterk started a journey to sail around the world on his boat Lunatic. He used his amateur radio to communicate, and was last heard from on 1 January 2009. Lunatic was spotted on 26 January, approximately 1,000 nmi (1,900 km) off the coast of Australia. The boat looked damaged and there was no sign of Šterk on deck.[1]

Three months later, on 30 April 2009, Lunatic was found adrift by the crew of the science vessel RV Roger Revelle, 500 miles (800 km) south-eastern on position: Latitude 32-18.0S, Longitude 091-07.0E. The sails were torn and there was no one on board. After boarding, it was found that the last log entry was made on 2 January 2009.[2][3]