The 78-year-old single-handed sailor Carl-Ludwig Harms is missing. He set off from the south coast of Portugal towards Tenerife in his 13-metre-long, cutter-rigged aluminium yacht "Typee" at the beginning of December last year. He had reserved a berth there in advance and also had spare parts for his ship delivered there. However, Harms did not arrive in Tenerife.
His niece, who lives in Munich - Harms himself has no family of his own - then informed the authorities in Spain and Portugal at the beginning of the year and also contacted the German police and the German sea rescue service, without any results. When, after months of endeavour, the niece recently received her uncle's contact list from the Winlink amateur radio service, with which Harms was registered, she was able to make contact with a long-time sailing friend of her uncle.
He had also previously tried in vain to track down Harms and, when that failed, to find his next of kin. He now also advised the niece to advertise her search in the sailing media in the hope of finding other sailors who met Harms with his "Typee" at the end of last year. He was last anchored in the Algarve near Faro at Ilha da Culatra for several weeks in autumn 2016.
Anyone who has seen or even spoken to the Emden man since the end of 2016 is asked to let the YACHT editorial team know and we will then pass the information on to his relatives: Tel. 040/33 96 66 21 or mail@yacht.de.
Two similar accidents within a month
It seems almost strange in this context that only two to three weeks after Harms' disappearance in the same sea area, a second German sailing yacht was reported missing. The "Tortuga", a Contest 37, had set off from Albufeira in the Portuguese Algarve on 28 December, just west of Faro, bound for Madeira and never arrived. YACHT online had reported on this.
However, one of the two sailors on board later washed up dead in a life raft of the yacht on the coast of Porto Santo, an island just off the coast of Madeira. However, there is still no trace of the "Tortuga" itself or the second sailor; the authorities assume that the yacht sank.
83-year-old from Finkenwerder probably stayed on the North Sea
Another missing person case took place just a few weeks ago on the German-Danish North Sea coast. 83-year-old Rudi Rösler, also a single-handed sailor, had set off from Esbjerg on his sailing boat "Lady" in the direction of the Elbe; the "Lady's" home harbour was in Finkenwerder. When Rösler did not report to his son days later as agreed, he informed the coastguard, who in turn spread a search report along the coast.
Despite additional appeals in various sailing groups on social media, there has been no result to date. However, if anyone has any information about Rudi Rösler's whereabouts, they can also contact the YACHT editorial team: Tel. 040/33 96 66 21 or mail@yacht.de.
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Pascal Schürmann
Editor YACHT
