A motor sailing yacht with its home port of Hamburg, which was last moored in Portimão/Portugal, ran aground in presumably rough seas while attempting to call at the port of Rabat. The German skipper and his wife were on board and, according to a relative of the fatal victim, had intended to bunker diesel in Morocco.
Nothing is yet known about the exact course of the accident. A spokeswoman for the Federal Foreign Office has only confirmed that a 55-year-old German man died and a 53-year-old German woman was injured in the boat accident last Sunday. The German embassy in Rabat is in contact with the German woman concerned and the relatives of the deceased.
The ship is an almost 20 metre long traditional sailing ship that was built as a fishing cutter in 1946 at the Oskar Böhme shipyard in Cuxhaven. It sailed the North Sea until it was converted into a cutter yacht in 1991. The skipper couple's website also states that the ship is "technically up to date despite its nostalgic appearance".
A relative of the victim told YACHT online that there was a lot of wind and high swell at the time of the accident. However, the forecast for the day in question was only up to a maximum of 14 knots of wind from the west to north-west. However, a swell of around two and a half metres was forecast.
The approach to Rabat is not without danger. Particularly in westerly winds, a threatening bottom sea builds up in front of the entrance. A video of another yacht on YouTube shows this situation impressively. If the swell exceeds two metres, the port is therefore normally closed by the authorities. However, it is not known whether this was also the case on that Sunday.
Dangerous approach to Rabat
According to the family member, this was not the first time the skipper couple had visited the harbour. The sailors had probably already sailed from Portimão to Rabat several times to bunker diesel.
The current accident is strongly reminiscent of the tragic case of the Sailing yacht "Taube". In 2009, the ship was wrecked in a very similar situation not far north of Rabat while trying to reach a Moroccan harbour. At that time, dangerous surf had also built up in front of the harbour entrance and caused the ship to capsize. Six young crew members died at the time.
