Heureux dénouement - happy ending! An intensive search for two missing sailors off the Moroccan coast had been underway since Sunday 24 May. The two Frenchmen had felt they were in distress on their catamaran and had switched to a dinghy. Since then, there has been no trace of them.
Yesterday evening (Thursday 28 May 2026) the relieving news: the two Frenchmen were rescued safe and sound. As the sailors did not have an emergency radio beacon (EPIRB), the Moroccan Maritime Rescue Centre (MRCC Morocco) had sent a MAYDAY RELAY to all ships in the search area. A merchant vessel responded to this call and discovered the two of them floating in the dinghy off Asilah. After the rescue, the MRCC verified the identity of the rescued men. The two Frenchmen are now to be taken to Cádiz in the south of Spain.
Water ingress during the night
The first emergency report was received by MRCC Morocco at around two o'clock in the morning on Saturday night. The two Frenchmen reported water ingress on board their catamaran off the Moroccan coast. A second message followed around 45 minutes later: they would leave the boat and transfer to one of the dinghies - a small inflatable boat with an outboard motor.
The last known position of the "Stella" was about three nautical miles off the coast of Tangier. The ship is a Lagoon 42 - The most successful cruising catamaran in the world, with over 1000 built. The "Stella" was on a transfer voyage from the French Caribbean island of Martinique to an unspecified European harbour with a professional skipper on board.
The catamaran was still afloat
When the rescue team found the catamaran about three nautical miles off the coast of Tangier, the boat was still floating on the water. It was then towed into the harbour of Asilah. No one was on board. A life raft was also found nearby - also empty.
It remains unclear why the two sailors abandoned their boat, which was apparently still afloat. It is also not yet known how big the leak actually was, whether it was found or how much water was in the boat.
Large search team mobilised
Two aeroplanes, two helicopters and three sea units from Morocco took up the search, as did rescue workers and divers from the civil defence. A French naval aircraft also took part in the search.
After the catamaran and the life raft were found drifting unmanned off the coast of Tangier, the search focussed on finding the dinghy with outboard engine in which the crew had rescued themselves.
Survived four days in the dinghy
The two sailors spent four days and nights in the small dinghy on the open sea before they were finally discovered by the merchant ship. It remains unclear what caused the water ingress. The location is in an area that has been notorious since 2020 for a group of orcas attacking boats and especially their oars in waters off the Iberian Peninsula. However, none of the French media reports indicate that orcas could have caused the water ingress.
Ursula Meer
Redakteurin Panorama und Reise
