Accident With Latvian Captain Leaves Passengers Helpless
On August 9, the Estonian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre received a request of help from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Riga, when the captain of a Latvian yacht fell overboard near the Kolka lighthouse in the Gulf of Riga.
Since the captain had also been the only crew member on board, the rest of the party found themselves in trouble, because none of them knew how to navigate the yacht, which drifted on, rudderless, reported the police's West Prefecture.
The accident happened in the Latvian emergency response area, but since the location was close to the island of Saaremaa, the Estonian border patrol vessel PVL-112 Valve responded to the request for help.
Having found the yacht, the patrol vessel transported the people on board to the port of Roja in Latvia. The yacht was towed there as well.
On Friday, August 12, the captain's family requested via Interpol that another search be launched. Having taken into account the direction of the wind and the drift current, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Kuressaare mounted a search operation near the island of Saaremaa, where the missing captain was presumed to have drifted. The search yielded no results and the captain remains missing to this day.
According to the head of the West Prefecture's Border Guard Bureau, Margus Toomsalu, the accident is made doubly regrettable by the fact that, apart from the captain, there was nobody on board the yacht with skills to navigate and stop it in a crisis situation.
"We would like to impress upon all seafarers and companies offering recreational boat trips on the sea or any other body of water that there should always be more than one person capable of navigating the vessel on board," said Toomsalu.
In order to prevent accidents, the skippers of recreational craft should familiarize the passengers on board with the safety requirements and explain where the life saving equipment can be found and how to use it.
"In addition to the safety requirements, the people on board should also be briefed on the elementary ways of stopping the vessel, using the radio transmitter, and requesting help if necessary," added Toomsalu.
Sigrid Maasen