Yesterday, a sailing boat with a crew of two capsized in winds of up to 7 Beaufort from the west on Untersee, a part of Lake Constance, off the island of Reichenau. The boat capsized and the sailors were rescued from the water by two motorboat crews who rushed to their aid, according to the Constance police. Luckily, the accident victims were wearing life jackets and were not injured.
Surprised by fire while sleeping
An Austrian owner who had spent the night on board in the West Sailing Harbour on Lake Neusiedl was even luckier at the beginning of the weekend. His boat had caught fire for reasons as yet unexplained. It is probably only thanks to an attentive neighbour who alerted the fire brigade at around half past two in the morning that the sailor, who apparently did not notice the fire himself, escaped with his life. According to the fire brigade, they found a sailing boat on fire when they arrived at the scene. The owner had been woken by the extinguishing operation. He managed to disembark unharmed. However, his boat was completely burnt out.
Rescued by helicopter due to head injury
There was also a lot going on in the Baltic Sea. South of Fehmarn on Sunday, a 21-year-old sailor had to be rescued from a yacht by a SAR helicopter and flown to hospital. He had previously suffered a serious head injury on board. The skipper then alerted the sea rescuers and urgently requested medical assistance. Shortly afterwards, the injured man was taken to a rescue cruiser that had rushed to the scene of the accident. The German Navy SAR helicopter, which had also arrived at the scene in the meantime, lowered an emergency doctor by winch. The doctor decided that the patient needed to go ashore immediately for further medical treatment. The crew of the Sea King therefore winched the 21-year-old up and flew him to a nearby hospital.
More dramatic maritime emergencies:
On the other hand, six sailors who ran aground in their 15-metre yacht near the Flügge lighthouse on Fehmarn escaped with a scare on Saturday. The sea rescuers also rushed to their aid. Several attempts to pull the yacht back into deep water initially failed. When it was already being considered to have the crew rescued by a helicopter, a final towing attempt was successful; the sea rescuers brought the ship and crew safely back to Heiligenhafen.
Capsized catamaran sailor brought ashore
This was the third mission of the day for the Großenbrode rescue team. They had previously come to the aid of an exhausted sailor on a capsized sports catamaran. The sea rescuers took the man to Kraksdorf on his catamaran, where he was met by family members.
When another alarm was raised about a person in the water near Heiligenhafen, the sea rescuers were able to complete their mission. The person was rescued by the DLRG (German Life Saving Association).
Depowered single-handed sailor taken in tow
The volunteer sea rescuers from Fehmarn also had two missions behind them on Saturday. While they were on their way to a sailing yacht with engine failure, they discovered a single-handed sailor in the afternoon who was in danger of stranding his boat in the Fehmarn Sound. The man had lost part of his sails and was completely exhausted. Two other ships had tried to assist him, but were unsuccessful as the boat had already drifted too far into the shallows.
A sea rescuer boarded the 7.5 metre long sailing boat and assisted the sailor. He took over the towline from the rescue boat and remained on the distressed vessel until it was towed into Burgstaaken.
The rescuers then brought the sailing yacht with the engine damage into the harbour, for which they had actually been on their way. Unlike the single-handed sailor, this yacht was not in acute danger.
Stranded on the cliffs of Rügen
However, it was a completely different story for three sailors who were stranded on the cliffs in the north of Rügen on Saturday night. At around 2.40 a.m., the sea rescue control centre received an emergency call stating that a yacht was drifting towards the coast of the island in a strong north-westerly wind. The position of the yacht could be determined by mobile phone about one nautical mile west of Cape Arkona. Two DGzRS lifeboats were then directed to the location.
When they arrived, the shipwrecked vessel was already stranded between the rocks off the cliffs with her anchor deployed. The sea rescuers handed over a towline, but the sailors were unable to retrieve the anchor. Only a sea rescuer was finally able to cut the chain with the help of heavy tools.
It was then possible to tow the shipwrecked vessel free; however, the yacht had already suffered severe damage under water with heavy water ingress. Two lifeboats therefore took the boat in the middle, kept it afloat with powerful bilge pumps and towed it to Glowe harbour for several hours.
