32 call-outs over the weekend: Sea rescue teams assist sailors following a broken mast and an injury

The high number of call-outs illustrates how quickly a technical failure or an injury can lead to a situation in which crews require external assistance. Two operations in particular directly involved sailing: in Eckernförde Bay, during the ongoing SAREx exercise, the rescuers had to be dispatched to a yacht with a broken mast. Off Schilksee, they took a female sailor with a suspected broken arm from a yacht.

Hypothermic sailor rescued off Heligoland

At midday on Friday, 18 September, sea rescue services off Heligoland rescued a severely hypothermic sailor from a yacht. With winds of force six on the Beaufort scale and waves around three metres high, a sea rescue vessel, a support boat, a rescue helicopter and an emergency tug worked together to bring the weakened woman safely ashore. The details of the operation are set out in the article Hypothermic sailor rescued off Heligoland.

Mast failure in the middle of the SAREx exercise

Of all times, a real-life emergency occurred on Friday afternoon during the large-scale search and rescue exercise SAREx in Eckernförde Bay. Nine sea rescue cruisers and boats were practising how to deal with complex situations when, at around 4.10 pm, a sailing yacht made contact with the Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre via marine radio: the two-person crew had suffered a broken mast at the mouth of Eckernförde Bay.

The rescue coordination centre called off the exercise for the units involved and alerted the ECKERNFÖRDE sea rescue boat and the KONRAD-OTTO from the Kühlungsborn station. Two rescue workers transferred from the KONRAD-OTTO to the stricken yacht. They recovered the mast and rigging from the water and secured the parts on board. The sea rescue team then brought the yacht, with its uninjured crew, safely to Damp.

The operation provided a practical illustration of what is practised at SAREx: a training scenario can give way to a real emergency at any time. It was crucial for the crew to stabilise the stricken vessel following the mast failure to such an extent that no loose rigging parts ended up in the water and no further danger arose from the damaged rigging.

Injured sailor brought ashore off Schilksee

On Saturday lunchtime, the skipper of a sailing yacht approximately twelve metres long reported a medical emergency via VHF channel 16. About 1.8 nautical miles off Wendtorf on the outer fjord of Kiel, a female passenger had presumably broken her arm during a sailing manoeuvre. The woman, aged around 40, was complaining of severe pain.

The Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre alerted the JÜRGEN HORST rescue boat from the Schilksee station. Upon arrival, a rescuer boarded the yacht and administered first aid. As the injured woman was unable to transfer to the rescue boat unaided, the lifeguards lifted her onto the boat using a basket stretcher. In Laboe, the patient was handed over to the ambulance service on shore, who took her to hospital.

This incident highlights the importance of a safe handover at sea. Even in calmer conditions, the transfer from a sailing yacht to a lifeboat may prove impossible for injured people without a suitable stretcher and a well-coordinated team of rescuers. The way in which sea rescue services prepare for such scenarios was most recently demonstrated by the Major rescue exercise in the Baltic Sea.

Further call-outs from the weekend in September

Further rescue operations over the weekend highlight the breadth of the DGzRS’s work. In the Fehmarn Belt, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre coordinated the evacuation of a seriously ill passenger from the cruise ship “Artania” by rescue helicopter. On the Koppelstrom off Born am Darß, volunteers from the Prerow/Wieck station towed a fishing boat free that had become stuck in the dark amidst waves up to 1.5 metres high.

On Borkum, two crew members looked after an elderly woman who had fallen in the harbour until the ambulance arrived. Off Gelting, the crew of the URSULA DETTMANN rescued an exhausted kitesurfer, who had been drifting between Wackerballig and Gelting, bringing him on board through the rescue hatch. He did not require medical treatment afterwards.

The DGzRS published the full operational report in its press release on A busy weekend in September on the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

Book recommendation

Medicine at Sea explains first aid, diagnosis and treatment in the conditions encountered on board. Among other things, the handbook covers injuries, loss of consciousness, bleeding, drowning and the preparation of the on-board first-aid kit. For skippers and crew, the practical focus is particularly important: the book shows how to recognise medical emergencies and provide structured care until professional help arrives.

Have the coastguard ever helped you out of a tricky situation? Please do tell us about it!