At least three sailors have died during a California yacht race, weeks after a fatal accident off the same coast.
US Coast Guard boats are looking for a fourth crew member from the yacht Aegean.
Race organisers the Newport Sailing Association said the wreckage indicated the yacht collided with a ship much larger than the 37-foot vessel.
On Thursday the Coast Guard suspended yacht racing around San Francisco after a fatal accident earlier this month.
Five people died when powerful waves threw their yacht onto a rocky island. Three others survived the accident.
The Coast Guard said the suspension was to see whether changes were needed to improve race safety rules.
Race officials said the Aegean disappeared from their tracking system early on Saturday a few miles off the coast near the border between the US and Mexico, an area close to where the race route crossed shipping lanes.
The identities of the dead and missing crew have not yet been released.
Other participants in the race said they saw a tanker or heard warnings on their radios.
"This has never happened in the entire 65 years of the race that I'm aware of," the commodore of the Newport Sailing Association Chuck Iverson told the Associated Press news agency. "We're all shocked by this whole event."
The 125-mile (202km) race began at Newport on Friday, with boats arriving in Ensenada on Sunday.
In March two sailors were injured off the North California coast in a round-the-world race when a huge wave overwhelmed their boat.
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