Uwe Röttgering
The 33-year-old lawyer Uwe Röttgering from Münster, who has been sailing around the world with one hand for more than a year (portrait “lawyer on the wrong track” in YACHT 12/00), was apparently with his aluminum yacht “FANFAN” without to know, in the immediate vicinity of the missing Hamburg couple Nölter, when the emergency signal was triggered at Cape Horn.
He passed the "Ole Hoop" on his 16-day trip from Valdivia / Chile to the Falkland Islands at the time of the accident at a distance of 20 miles. In speculating about the causes of the presumed sinking, he rules out the weather as the reason. In an email from the Falklands, he reports YACHT online; “Something other than the weather must be responsible.” He could not confirm the reported weather conditions of 10 wind speeds and eleven meters high waves. He was able to sail relatively comfortably under a storm jib.
Klaus Nölter and JohannMichaelis
You can read an analysis of the accident in YACHT 2/03 (from January 15, 2003 at the kiosk), the third part of Röttgering's travel report from Auckland to Chile will follow in YACHT 3/03 (published on January 29, 2003).
