North Sea: rescuers tow leaking 1938 gaff ketch into Cuxhaven
A leaking 14.5 metre gaff ketch lost her engine on passage from Föhr to Hamburg. German lifeboat crews towed her into Cuxhaven and put their own pump aboard when two of her three pumps failed.
Rescue NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH
On Tuesday 20 October 2026 the skipper of a 14.5 metre gaff ketch called the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Bremen, run by the German sea rescue service DGzRS (Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Rettung Schiffbrüchiger). The boat, a former fishing cutter built in 1938, was on delivery from the island of Föhr to Hamburg. At about 5 pm her engine failed completely, some 15 nautical miles off the mainland. She was already making a little water, and the skipper was pumping with pumps running on emergency power.
The lifeboat HERMANN MARWEDE was heading back to her Heligoland station after a supply run to Cuxhaven and happened to be in the same area. She reached the casualty within twenty minutes and took her in tow. About two hours into the tow, two of the three pumps failed and the water quickly rose to the floorboards.
The crew launched their daughter boat VERENA, passed across a powerful salvage pump with a power cable, and rigged a second line to help steer. At around 7.20 pm the daughter boat of the Cuxhaven lifeboat ANNELIESE KRAMER took over, and both small boats towed the ketch into Cuxhaven yacht harbour and made her fast. The wind was up to force 7 with waves of up to three metres.
Neither source says where the water came from or why the engine stopped. What the case does show is that pumps running only on emergency power buy time, and a cutter under tow without an engine has nothing left in reserve.
What happened
- Delivery trip from Föhr to Hamburg, the old cutter is already making water
- Around 5 pm the engine fails, some 15 nautical miles off the coast
- Twenty minutes later HERMANN MARWEDE arrives and takes her in tow
- Two of three pumps fail, the lifeboat crew put their own pump aboard
The bills a case like this leaves behind
Five kinds of cost, and the question worth putting to your own insurer.
Damage to the boat
Is this kind of event a named peril in my policy, and does sinking follow from it?
Pumping, plugging, securing
Will you pay for pumps and divers even if the boat is lost anyway?
What this means for owners
For anyone with an older wooden boat, this case is a checklist. Find out how long your bilge pumps run on battery alone, and carry one pump that works without the engine. Before the next delivery trip, ask your insurer how engine breakdown, wear and the damage caused by ingress water are each treated in your wording.
Our view as NAMMERT, not part of the news. Your own policy wording decides.
Where this comes from
- Source: DGzRS: Seenotretter befreien Skipper aus gefährlicher Notlage (21.10.2026)
- Source: SegelReporter: Einsatz auf der Nordsee, Seenotretter schleppen historischen Gaffelkutter nach Cuxhaven (21.10.2026)
The text is our own; the sources supplied the facts and figures, not the wording.
