On Thursday afternoon, the almost eight-metre-long sailing yacht "Zeus" was found wrecked on the beach of the Zingst peninsula in the Baltic Sea. At the same time, a dead man was found floating in the water eight kilometres east of the site near the "Hohe Düne" viewing platform. According to initial police investigations, the man was the skipper of the yacht.
According to information from the Stralsund police station, the deceased was a 54-year-old man from the district of Leipzig who was apparently trying to transfer the ship alone from the Hohe Düne marina in Warnemünde to Seedorf on the island of Rügen on Wednesday. The accident must have occurred during this crossing for reasons as yet unexplained.
Forces from the water police, the Barth police station, the rescue service and the DGzRS were on site, and a police helicopter searched the coastal area for other possible casualties. The public prosecutor's office in Stralsund has requested an autopsy to clarify the cause of death, and the investigation by the Stralsund criminal investigation department is ongoing.
The yacht is to be salvaged by a specialised company in the course of today and taken to Stralsund, where it will be secured until the investigation has been completed. The forces of the Stralsund Water Police Inspectorate are currently still on site.
