On 25 February, fishermen discovered the masted Sun Magic 44 "Sayo" off the coast of the Philippines. A gruesome find: the mummified body of its skipper, 59-year-old Manfred B. from North Rhine-Westphalia, was sitting at the chart table. The autopsy report allegedly stated that the skipper had died around seven days earlier. But that cannot be true: The body of the single-handed sailor had actually been discovered by a regatta crew around a month earlier. A reconstruction by YACHT with accident investigator Jürgen Albers even shows that the man died much earlier. And there is a real scandal behind it all.
The sailors who found the body at the end of January correctly reported their discovery to the coastguard. Everything was clear, they would take care of it, have a safe journey. And then - nothing happened. A scandal: the yacht with the body drifted for another 25 days before it was recovered by fishermen due to the lack of action.
As deputy head of the Federal Bureau of Maritime Casualty Investigation (BSU), Jürgen Albers is very familiar with such mysterious accidents. YACHT has reviewed photo and video material with the recognised expert and used it to trace the events on board. For example, it is certain that the skipper died after the mast broke, not before. And that the "Sayo" was sailing on starboard bow at the time of the accident.
From the available documents, Albers concludes that the previous information on the course of the accident cannot be correct. Nor can the information about the scene of the accident. The accident probably happened much earlier than previously assumed and around 1200 nautical miles further east. In the latest issue of YACHT, you can read what other findings the accident expert gathers from the documents and why he draws which conclusions.
