Ocean rescue drama as sailor injured deep into RORC Transatlantic Race
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FILE PHOTO: Sailing - 2026 RORC Transatlantic Race - Arrecife, Lanzarote, Spain - January 11, 2026 Walross 4, crewed by German students, fly the Bavarian bear on their spinnaker as they start the RORC Transatlantic Race from Lanzarote to Antigu REUTERS/Ossian Shine/File Photo
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Jan 19 - A crew member aboard the German yacht Walross 4 was knocked unconscious in an onboard accident deep in the Atlantic Ocean during the RORC Transatlantic Race, prompting a coordinated mid-ocean rescue, race organisers said.
The Nissen 56, owned by Berlin-based ASV, was around 1,500 nautical miles into the 3,000-mile crossing from Lanzarote to Antigua when the incident occurred. The Royal Ocean Racing Club alerted emergency authorities on Monday. Assuming responsibility for the response was the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Ponta Delgada, on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores.
A nearby commercial vessel was diverted and successfully recovered the injured crew member from Walross 4 in open-ocean conditions. The ship is now heading toward the Cape Verde Islands, where a helicopter evacuation to the Azores is planned when weather conditions allow.
The crew member’s next of kin has been informed. Race officials said they remain in contact with Walross 4 and the ASV yacht club in Germany.
Walross 4 is one of 21 yachts competing in the 12th edition of the race, which is sailed under World Sailing Offshore Special Regulations, Category 1 — the sport’s most demanding safety standard.
The German boat is skippered by Matthias Kahnt, and being sailed by a novice crew drawn from Berlin’s Akademischer Segler-Verein, a German sailing club focused on connecting students with offshore sailing.
The fleet was widely spread across the Atlantic at the time of the incident. Among those already finished was Jason Carroll’s MOD70 trimaran Argo, which secured multihull line honours after completing the crossing in under five days.
Monohull line honours were claimed on Sunday by the Baltic 111 Raven, which crossed the finish line at English Harbour, Antigua, in just under seven days, setting a new race record for the class.
The RORC Transatlantic Race is a biennial ocean race organised by the Royal Ocean Racing Club, sending a diverse fleet on a 3,000-nautical-mile passage from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the Caribbean. First staged in its modern form in 2014, the race has quickly established itself as one of offshore sailing’s most demanding blue-water tests, combining long-range endurance with the tactical complexities of trade-wind navigation.
The race draws a broad mix of cutting-edge multihulls, grand-prix monohulls and Corinthian crews. Olympic medallists and round-the-world professionals line up alongside ambitious amateurs, all facing days — and nights — of sustained ocean racing where preparation, seamanship and weather strategy can matter as much as raw speed. REUTERS
