Golden Globe skipper rescued

Finnish solo skipper Tapio Lehtinen was rescued by fellow Golden Globe Race competitor Kirsten Neuschäfer after Lehtinen’s boat sank “in minutes” and he spent over 24 hours adrift in the southern Indian Ocean.

Lehtinen and Neuschäfer were both racing in the ‘retro’ single-handed non-stop around the world Golden Globe Race, in 2nd and 3rd place respectively before the incident.

On the morning of 18 November 2022, Lehtinen awoke to a loud noise while sailing approximately 450 miles south-east of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. By 0654 (UTC) he had activated his personal locator beacon (PLB).

“Everything happened so quickly,” he said, speaking from the bulk carrier Darya Gayatri which later assisted in the rescue.

“I was sleeping in my bunk when I woke up to a big bang. Although I was sleeping, I do react to the movement of the boat and I'm 99% sure we didn’t hit anything. The bang came from the deck or inside the boat. I felt no impact. I have a safety net on top of the bunk so it took around 20 seconds to crawl out of my bunk and put my feet on the floor, and it was already knee deep in water. The water was rushing rapidly from the stern of the boat forward into the cabin.”

The 64-year-old sailor managed to grab his survival suit and a grab bag containing his communications equipment and make his way on deck, a swift reaction which almost certainly saved his life. “Once my survival suit was on, I got the life-raft in the water and then I went back to the companionway to get the other two grab bags, which had food, water and medication in them but, by then, the water was already up to deck level. Everything was floating inside and I realised I'd need to dive to get my two grab bags, which I decided not to do in a sinking boat.