By mid-October last year, the sea rescuers had carried out 1979 missions on the North Sea and Baltic Sea (2018: 2037). More than half of these, 1144 missions, involved water sports enthusiasts (2018: 1176). In turn, dinghy and yacht sailors accounted for 727 of these missions (2018: 722). As not many more sailors are likely to have been in distress by the end of December, the figures are roughly on a par with the previous year.
The causes of accidents - the ten most common for the water sports sector are listed in the picture gallery below - show only a few major deviations compared to previous years.
The breakdown by type of operation reveals that the rescuers are by no means only called out when it is stormy outside and the waves are towering as high as houses to rescue sailors from their sinking yachts at the last minute. The opposite is the case. Most often, this involves towing assistance or technical support.
And so perhaps the most important conclusion that can be drawn from the data is that boating in general and sailing in particular is, all in all, a very safe leisure activity.
Below are the ten most common reasons why the DGzRS comes to the aid of yacht and dinghy sailors, motorboat drivers, surfers, kiters and other water sports enthusiasts.The diagrams show the deployment figures for the years 2013 to 2019 in the bars from left to right.
