"This is what he would've wanted."
When experienced navigator Sai Jun was swept overboard Chinese boat Ark323 on their way to Sydney in late October, skipper Zhao Chuan Bao thought briefly about pulling out of next week's annual race to Hobart.
The Boxing Day dash was meant to be a milestone event for the Asian nation, who have never participated in one of the sport's most renowned meets.
But now it will be a particularly emotional one as well, after a number of search teams failed to find Sai's body anywhere along the Vietnamese coast over two days.
"This is a really big tragedy for the whole team," Zhao told AAP.
However Zhao said the almost entirely Chinese crew decided to continue on in honour of their fallen sailor because it's exactly what he would've wanted.
"He's one of our best sailors so it's a big loss but everybody realised that we couldn't stop what we have started," he said.
"Everybody came together because we love sailing.
"Nobody would stop any of our work because of tragedy. Everybody knows that the lost sailor, he wouldn't like that."
Alongside fellow Chinese boat Shuguang Haiyang, the 52-foot Ark323 will depart from Sydney Heads this Saturday with a heavy heart.
They are also on the lookout for a new navigator, but a team spokesperson said they were confident of finding one before the race begins.
"The team is keeping on recruiting because we have some team restructure after the freak accident," she said.
"Because everyone is fulltime here, we are going to hire new sailors and we are going to train our new sailors into navigator as well.
"We are going to find an experienced navigator for Sydney to Hobart but the name is not finalised yet."
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