The yacht has since been raised and towed to Kiel. The leak raises questions. As lawyer Jochen-P. Kunze from Flensburg, lawyer for the owner Peter Sage, told YACHT that the retractable bow thruster was the cause of the damage. It was installed incorrectly, a flange of the housing box was only glued in from the outside with sealing compound and not laminated, and a large leak occurred as a result of the water pressure, which would have caused the Sun Odyssey to sink within around ten minutes.
Jochen-P. Kunze: "We do not yet know whether and to what extent there is a cross-type recall by the manufacturer's shipyard. I am in dialogue with the dealer's legal representative in order to obtain valid feedback." Jeanneau has not yet commented on the case.
Last Wednesday, Santiano violinist Pete Sage's Jeanneau, which sank off Schönberg a week ago, was salvaged. As reported by the Kieler Nachrichten newspaper, a team of divers first attached a leaking sail to the hull of the boat before the yacht was raised with the help of the Danish specialised vessel "Elisabeth Hoj". The waterway police accompanied the tow to Laboe, where the damaged vessel was immediately craned out of the water. The waterway police are now investigating the cause of the water ingress.
So far, we can only speculate about this. However, a picture in the "Kieler Nachrichten" newspaper shows that the leaking sail covers the underwater hull just behind the bow - the place where a bow thruster is usually located on this type of ship.
Pete Sage's yacht sank within a few minutes
Pete Sage, known as a member of Santiano, was travelling with his wife on their sailing yacht from Heiligenhafen to Olpenitz on Friday afternoon when they got into difficulties at sea near Schönberg. In a statement from the DGzRS (German Maritime Search and Rescue Service), Sage describes the accident and the rescue.
"My wife went down into the ship to get a drink. Suddenly her feet were surrounded by a surge of water," remembers Pete Sage. She then switched on the bilge pump, but the water continued to rise rapidly. "I realised with horror that there was no stopping the inrush of water," he continues. At the time of the accident, there was a wind force of around seven on the Baltic Sea with a wave of around one metre, a water temperature of five degrees Celsius and an air temperature of eleven degrees Celsius.
The next moment, the entire on-board electrical system and then the engine failed, Sage continued. "Everything indicated that we would lose the ship," says the sailor, according to the press release. While his wife made a dinghy loaded on the foredeck ready, Sage managed to make an emergency call on his mobile phone. "Then it was 'Abandon Ship' - a call I never expected to have to make. My wife and I managed to climb into the dinghy. With heavy hearts, we let go of our sailing ship and drifted away with the wind and the current." The ship sank just a few minutes later.
Pete Sage thanks the DGzRS
At the same time, the sea rescuers from the DGzRS station in Laboe were travelling at top speed on the rescue cruiser "Berlin" to the scene of the accident. They spotted the mast of the sailing yacht, which had sunk in the meantime, protruding about 1.5 metres out of the Baltic Sea and soon afterwards, in the choppy sea, the shipwrecked people in their dinghy. The dinghy had already drifted several hundred metres in the strong winds. The dinghy "Steppke" picked up Pete Sage and his wife and brought them ashore in Laboe. According to the statement, both were in good health under the circumstances, but were handed over to an ambulance as a precaution.
"The DGzRS saved our lives," said Pete Sage two days after his rescue, "the sea rescuers looked after us in a picture-perfect and caring manner. They immediately recognised our condition and treated us with great sensitivity and understanding. I am so happy about this organisation. I can only say that to every sailor. I think everyone knows that too - but they haven't had the experience of losing a ship under such circumstances." Just recently, Santiano donated 5,000 euros to the sea rescuers.
Sage used his yacht as a sailing recording studio
In 2018, YACHT met Pete Sage and his band colleague Björn Both, who also sails, for a report. At the time, Sage talked about his recording studio on board: "I've been sailing for as long as I've been making music: for decades, mostly on traditional ships. My dream has always been to have a recording studio on my own ship. I have now fulfilled it by buying a 40-foot Jeanneau and furnishing the saloon so that I can produce music there. You don't need a huge mixing desk these days, a laptop is enough. So I can set sail, drop anchor and make music. The boat is the perfect place to work creatively, there are no distracting factors. And in summer, I can sit in the cockpit and think about new pieces." However, the expensive equipment is not on board in winter, Sage said at the time.
