Power accident and broken rudder: Dramatic accidents on the North Sea and in Bavaria

The accident happened shortly before midnight in the busy Terschelling German Bight shipping lane in the German Bight. This was reported by the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service (DGzRS). Manoeuvring and depth-restricted commercial vessels must keep to their exact course here, and the area must be passed by crossing vessels as quickly as possible. However, this was no longer possible after the loss of the rudder; the twelve-metre yacht was unable to manoeuvre. At 11.42 pm, the sailors sent out a mayday call.

The German Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Bremen, which is operated by the DGzRS, alerted the rescue cruiser "Hamburg" from the Borkum station, which set sail immediately. Its foreman coordinated the operation with the traffic centre of the Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, which monitors the vessels in the large shipping lane.

Unmanoeuvrable yacht in tow

As the unmanoeuvrable sailing yacht was equipped with AIS, the situation could be monitored continuously until the arrival of the "Hamburg".

At 1.30 a.m., the sea rescuers established a line connection to the sailing yacht from both the rescue cruiser and the daughter boat. While the "Hamburg" towed the yacht, its daughter boat steered the rudderless vessel out as a towed appendage.

At around six o'clock on Monday morning, the sea rescuers arrived on Borkum with the unmanoeuvrable sailing yacht and the two exhausted but uninjured sailors. The weather was calm that night and visibility was good despite the darkness.

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Allgäu: serious boating accident on land

The Swabia South/West police headquarters in Kempten in the Allgäu region reported another boating accident on Monday. Although this occurred on land, it ended far worse for the boat owner. The man was seriously injured in an electrical accident.

According to the investigations so far, a 65-year-old man was pushing a catamaran with a trailer on a tarred road towards the jetty at Rottachsee on Monday afternoon after he had taken it out of the water. In the process, the approximately nine-metre-high carbon mast became entangled in high-voltage power lines that run across the road.

The current passed through the medium-voltage lines, which carried around 20,000 volts, to the catamaran and the man. A rescue helicopter was deployed to take him to a specialised clinic after the accident. According to the police, his condition is stable, but he suffered serious injuries.

In order to rescue the man, for which the rescue helicopter, an ambulance and the volunteer fire brigade were deployed, the power was switched off on the lines, which meant that some households were affected by a power cut lasting around 45 minutes.