Baltimore ? Rescue crews searched the Chesapeake Bay on Sunday for a prominent publisher and former diplomat whose sailboat was found empty and drifting in shallow water.

Philip Merrill, 72, an experienced sailor, had taken his 41-foot sailboat out alone Saturday, and he typically followed an 18-mile round trip without wearing a lifejacket, said Col. Mark S. Chaney, superintendent of the Maryland Natural Resources Police.

Skies were clear with winds gusting up to 25 mph – “a condition that would probably be difficult for a single sailor alone,” Chaney said.

State and federal agencies searched 100 square miles of the bay with aircraft and boats. But rescue crews think Merrill fell overboard since his wallet was found on board and there was no damage to the boat, officials said.

Merrill is chairman of the board of Annapolis-based Capital-Gazette Communications Inc., which publishes Washingtonian magazine, The Capital and five other Maryland newspapers.