This is a „nice“ little story that just happened yesterday. But first: Sorry guys as it does not take place on a sailing yacht. But this is a fact that will make for a twist at the end of this article, you will see. As it happens, I was attending a sea trial event of a boat dealer, providing for photographic coverage. A cool VIP-occasion, involving a 5-star spa hotel, a nice marina and a yacht. Organized for a selected number of clients or prospective customers. Star of the show was a Swift Trawler semi-displacement yacht. 44 feet – a perfect boat for retired sailors, as they say.
We were heading out into the large beautiful Flensburg fjord a couple of times, with the customers happily taking over the helm to try out this yacht on their own. A very clear and sunny day, breathtakingly shiny, but freezingly cold: Some 10 degrees Celsius, icy wind and water temperature around chilling 5 degrees Celsius. Heading out for another time, I was on the flybridge of the boat, as suddenly one of the boat dealers became very worried …
Is there a person in the water?
In a distance, I´d say some half a mile, he had observed a kite in the water already for about five minutes: No visible movement detectable. Instead, the kite was apparently drifting. No person could be seen actively trying to recover it. Notifying the captain of the yacht, he immediately took over the helm from one of the custumers and turned around the boat.
I informed the rest of the crew, which at that point consisted of two people from the boat dealer and four guests. As we pointed our bow back onto the direction of the colorful kite in the water, I urged the passengers to have a thorough watchout for a person in the water: Where there´s a kite, the must be a board as well. Where there´s a board, there might be the unlucky person.
Our captain put the levers on the table, the Trawler sprung to life. Two 350 horsepower Yanmar Diesel engines went from 9 knots eco-mode cruising mode to flank speed. Amazing, how this kind of bulky, voluminous yacht accellerated. She went into planning mode like nothing and dashed through the ice cold water – heading for the site.
MOB or not? Better call the MRCC!
At the same time, on the main deck, we shortly talked about what to do now: There was clearly a large kite in the water, but no person visible. It could very well be just some rubbish, flotsam. But what if not? Albeit the VHF was available to set out a distress call to the local SAR base, we decided to make a phone call.
The MRCC – Maritime Rescue Coordination Center – of Germany is based in the city of Bremen. Far away from our current position, but, as the name suggests, the prime address for cases like these. As SAR-operations of my country or the United Kingdom are managed by one single MRCC, France for example operates four locations and the United States (being a full continent by size) has 19 such centers.
Anyway, this all happened in a matter of a few minutes: After just two rings Bremen Rescue, the German MRCC, picks up. Announcing our position both by disclosing the geodatic coordinates and an approximation using local bearings („we are off marina XY“) we told the operator that we´ve located a kite but couldn´t find the person. We asked what to do.
Cautious maneuvers: Collecting the flotsam
At the same time, another sailboat was also heading towards the positon of the drifting wing. Just as we arrived, the sailboat passed the kite. The skipper on the other boats did not slow down but instead chose to just go by. I guess he decided that this was just rubbish. Well. At least he went there to take a look … Then I saw that the kite was dragging its control lines through the water – extending for dozens of meters in the general direction of the wind. So we neared the boat very cautiously – getting those extra strong Dyneema-lines into the shaft propulsion would not be very cool.
As the MRCC had instructed us, we attempted to take aboard the flotsam. Very slowly, our captain approached the kite stern first while two of us went out onto the bathing platform. Counting the distance to the kite, we shouted „stop!“ at the very moment one of us had the first line safe in his hands. Immediately halting the movement of the yacht and preventing the lines to become entangled with our props, we began to pull aboard both the lines to our right hand side and the kite to our left.
I was the one pulling on the right side – where the ropes would all come together at the grab handle. One of the guests, a lady, sent a short arrow prayer to the heavens: God forbid, let´s not have a dead body attached at the end of these lines, please! Luckily, the leight weight I felt when pulling suggested that it wasn´t a connected to a drowned person. A minute later we´ve had the huge kite aboard, squeezing it between aft lounge deck and fly-deck. We called the MRCC again to give an update and tell them where we´d bring the kite. New course: Home marina!
A shoutout to powerboats!
Now comes the little twist I promised at the beginning of this article: I know very well about the animosities between sailing yacht skippers and powerboaters. It´s a long standing „tradition“, fueled by rage, real incidents, much exaggeration, ignorance and neglect on both sides. I must admit, I personally also often felt mistreated and disrespected by motor yacht skippers myself, having had to clear situations by hasty evasion maneuvers or cursing when another one was dashing by in a too short distance, rocking my boat violently in its huge wake.
On the other hand, I know a lot of motor yacht skippers who are complaining about „deaf“ sailors who are hindering traffic, stubburnly persisting on non-existent „rights to do something“ and snobby disparage. And while undeniably there are assholes on the water all the time, I am sure, that the distribution of them may be very even in both camps. The funny thing is, that in this case – the kite in the water with a potential MOB and imminent catastrophe – it was due to the sharp lookout and exemplary behaviour of a power boat skipper, combined with the awesome speed of a motoryacht, that made such a quick reaction possible. At least I felt inclined to re-think a bit my attitude towards motor yachts that day.
What happened to the kitesurfer?
So, now: What happened to the surfer guy? Was it a MOB-incident or not? Well, first of all, some 5 or maybe 9 minutes after our phone call to the MRCC, we saw a speedboat of the coast guard dashing towards the coordinates. I guess the colleagues were checking the scene by themselves: Given the very low water temperature and the fact that we couldn´t discover a person in the water, they may have utilized infrared vision or other technology to try to locate the surfer. We arrived back on the pontoon in the marina: After the shock, the VIP-guests needed an extra refill of their Champaign glasses, that´s for sure. Incidents like this show the unvarnished and darker side of yachting very clearly.
Later that day the sufer guy apparently showed up at the marina to collect his kite. This means, he neither drowned nor died, which is a very good thing. As I couldn´t know this at that time, I also dialed the number of the German MRCC a last time to ask about the latest developments. Not disclosing any details due to privacy and data protection, the guys told me that the board had been found too and that the surfer was „safe and sound“.
So, what´s the meaning of this story? I decided to make an article about this incident because as the sailing season is right about to start, this may be a good reminder to play safe. Abide to basic safety requirements aboard your boats, maybe refresh the code-of-conduct of MOB-procedures or play (but not send) with the distress calls-menue of your VHF. Check your emergency equipment, like life jackets, the raft and utilities for MOB-rescue. Most of all: Stay safe, guys! This time it all went well and nobody was hurt, though he must have had his ass frozen off for sure.
It is fascinating and reassuring, that both fellow skippers (even on power boats!) and much more, the distinguished professionals running the SAR-chain from the MRCC to the guys aboard the rescue boats, are there to unleash their help. In a matter very few minutes. Thanks, guys, thank you for your service!
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