A crewless offshore race boat ended up 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of England, yet no one knew how it got there. By Ben Gallagher

Every year, thousands of ships cross the Atlantic Ocean, but it's rare to hear of a performance boat completing the voyage. In 1986, a powerboat did make the journey—just not with anyone on board.

Sound strange? The story, which ran in the May 1987 issue of Powerboat, was a bit bizarre.

It began with a phone call to Ray Bulman, a columnist for the British magazine Motor Boat and Yachting (and author of the Powerboat article). The local Coast Guard called Bulman to see if he could identify what they thought was a "fast motorboat," which had been found 1 mile off the North Cornish coast of South West Britain. The boat had been towed to St. Ives, a small fishing village 300 miles west of London.

Bulman was informed, from what little the Coast Guard could identify, that along with the name Motor Boat and Yachting painted on the transom, the number P111 was on the side of the hull. Bulman knew that meant that the boat was not only a race boat but one that had been part of the National Cruiser class, as they were the only boats prefixed with the letter "P" in Britain. However, the class was reserved for boats built with standard production cabins and engines, and the boat did not have a cabin.

When Bulman got to St. Ives, and a significant number of barnacles had been removed, the real inscription could be seen. Motor Boating and Sailing, a well-known boating journal published in New York, not Motor Boat and Yachting, was the inscription painted on the transom. The Coast Guard had been right about the number on the hull, though, so Bulman called a friend in Miami to help him solve the mystery.

Through some collaborative overseas detective work, Bulman and his friend discovered that the boat was indeed of American origin. Officially identified as The Galleon, it was a 34-foot Coyote monohull designed by French-American Jean Claude Simon. Its last known owner was John Carbonell of Key West, Fla.

A call to Carbonell, who leads the Super Boat International offshore racing circuit, revealed that the boat had a successful racing career. Having finished second in two world production championships, Carbonell had the two Mercury 2.4 EFI outboard engines removed, the boat dismantled, and then laid up by his mechanic. In 1985, he sold The Galleon to a trio of men who happened by it one afternoon.

A few weeks after Carbonell sold the V-bottom, the U.S. Coast Guard called to tell him that the crew had been picked up by a fishing boat and that the boat was adrift on the Bahama Bank, 25 miles west of West End Point, Grand Bahama Island. Having sold the boat, Carbonell paid little attention.

A year and a half later, he got a call that the boat had ended up more than 4,000 miles away near England. He didn't know the new owners, his only contact with them was when they bought the boat. There was no telling what the boat was doing that far away.

It was impounded by British Customs and sold to the highest bidder. To this day, it still makes you wonder how that boat made it across the channel.