Shortly before midnight on 18 September, on the first night of the Silverrudder single-handed race around the Danish island of Funen, a 50-year-old Slovenian sailor named Matija fell overboard from his Beneteau First 18 SE. His tether held. The boat righted itself and sailed on at more than 4 knots, towing him for more than an hour, until a Mayday from the handheld VHF radio in his lifejacket pocket brought help. He told his story to the German magazine YACHT and asked to keep his surname out.
How he ended up in the water
About 320 boats started from Svendborg; rain squalls during the race brought gusts of up to 32 knots. On the upwind leg along the north of the island, Matija decided to push on and find a harbour if things got too hard. He now calls that his first mistake. Past the island of Æbelø it got worse, and he let a second chance to turn back go. First 18 owners had been advised to stop at Kerteminde or Nyborg, Beneteau's Danish importer told Minbåd.
Close to midnight, tired, Matija rolled up the jib to eat a sandwich. When he unrolled it, the wind caught it on the wrong side before he could let the sheet out, and the boat went over with its mast in the water. He eased the sheets, panicked, climbed onto the keel to pull the boat upright, and fell in.
He was clipped on at the mast and hauled himself to about 30 centimetres behind the stern. The jib sheet was still partly pulling, so the boat came up and took off, and the water pressure was too strong for him to pull himself aboard.
What is the First 18 SE?
Samuel Manuard designed this production boat, and more than 500 have been built. The 5.55-metre boat weighs 500 kg empty, with 125 kg of cast-iron ballast in the keel. Beneteau calls it unsinkable thanks to its buoyancy chambers. Matija, who has sailed his for nine years, says a capsized First 18 comes back up by itself once the jib is rolled away.
How the Mayday got through
After five or ten minutes he realised he could not get out alone and called Mayday on channel 16. For nine years the radio had lived in the boat; that night, for the first time, it was in his pocket. He pushed on the rudder blade to turn the boat into the wind, and it stopped for a moment, then sped off whenever he let go.
Max Käkenmeister, a German competitor sailing north of Æbelø, heard him. "It was this totally distorted, crackly 'I'm in the water, I'm in the water'," he told YACHT. The boat was then found on the race tracker, and he passed its position to Lyngby Radio, Denmark's coast station.
A lifeboat from Dansk Søredningsselskab in Juelsminde and a helicopter from Karup went out, according to organiser Philip Cossen. The helicopter crew spotted him behind the stern and guided the lifeboat in; a rescuer jumped aboard and pulled him out. He was winched into the helicopter, checked for hypothermia in Odense and discharged at about 05.00. The pilot told him later that a handheld radio can only be tracked while someone is transmitting.
What the rules and safety bodies say
Silverrudder requires a lifejacket worn all race, a harness, jackstays, a VHF radio and the organiser's tracker. A PLB (personal locator beacon) is optional, and the rules are silent on tether length, quick-release hooks and where the radio is carried.
His tether, Matija says, was so short he could barely move. World Sailing's Offshore Special Regulations cap tethers at 2 metres and call for self-closing hooks. When Practical Boat Owner towed a dummy in 2015, its face went under at 4 knots; the magazine advises the shortest tether and slowing to 2 knots within a minute. The UK Marine Accident Investigation Branch found that a crewman who died after going overboard from the Clipper Race yacht CV30 in 2017 was dragged along the hull because of his tether's length and attachment point. The RYA lists GPS-linked DSC radios and PLBs as ways to call for help.
Cossen told YACHT: "We will carry out a thorough review of the race and seriously consider how we can improve safety, including the option of making a PLB part of the compulsory equipment." In Denmark a PLB must be registered, which takes a radio certificate, and Cossen wants the race to stay open to ordinary sailors. A decision is due in the coming months.
Matija's rules now: wear the radio. After a capsize, stay aboard and roll up the jib. On a boat this size, treat 25 knots as the limit for a long solo sail. He will keep sailing, he said, though a single-handed night race needs serious thought.
Photo: Silverrudder. Sources: YACHT, Minbåd, Silverrudder, Beneteau, World Sailing, MAIB, Practical Boat Owner, RYA.
