Slow Speed Chase from 2009 Photo: Kat Wade / Special to The Chronicle

Update: Sad news. As of Sunday Evening, the Coast Guard suspended the search for the four crew missing after the 38′ yacht Slow Speed Chase ran aground in Farallones Race off San Francisco on Saturday.

Three or four sailors are missing and one is confirmed dead after the 38′ yacht Slow Speed Chase ran aground Saturday afternoon in the Farallon Islands off San Francisco, CA while competing in the Full Crew Farallones Race.  The Yacht Racing Association of San Francisco Bay and the SFGate are reporting that there were seven sailors aboard the yacht. Three were rescued, three are missing and one has died.  CNN, the New York Times and the AP are reporting that there were eight crew aboard and that four remain missing.  The US Coast Guard is now searching for the missing sailors.  From the New York Times:

1 Dead, 4 Missing in Yacht Race Accident.

Seas were running high at 10-12 feet when the Low Speed Chase was hit by a larger wave and the four were washed overboard, Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read said.

“They turned the boat around to go rescue those people and they got hit by another wave,” sending the boat onto rocks, he said.

A Mayday call reporting the accident went out at about 3 p.m. PDT.

Coast Guard and National Guard helicopters and water craft rescued three crew members who were clinging to rocks, Read said. The body of the other crew member was pulled from the water.

A Coast Guard helicopter, a cutter and a smaller boat were searching the waters around the islands, 27 miles west of San Francisco, as well as shoreline areas early Sunday for the missing crew members.