AYOP BUSINESS CALL WITH KNRM

The rescue and salvage of Julietta D: step into the world of the KNRM volunteer crews.

Cargo ship adrift among wind farm platforms…. It may sound like the title of a maritime thriller but storm Corrie turned fiction into reality.

The impact of Corrie on the Dutch coastline will have escaped no-one’s attention. At just before 11:00 on the morning of Monday 31 January, two vessels – cargo ship Julietta D and oil tanker Pechora Star – alerted the authorities that they’d collided more than 20 miles west of IJmuiden after Julietta D broke free of her moorings. A major incident was declared by the Dutch coastguard as the vessel had also been holed and was taking water into her engine room.

Lifeboats manned by volunteers from the Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution (KNRM) in IJmuiden and Scheveningen swiftly responded to offer help, evacuate the crew and secure the vessel. They had to act fast as the 190-metre Julietta D was also a threat to the Hollandse Kust Zuid Alpha platform. Drifting rudderless in the wind farm she also appears to have collided with the Bèta jacket (foundations) of the transformer platform, the consequences of which are now under investigation.

Edward Zwitser from the KNRM will tell us all about this rescue and salvage operation in a special Business Call on 8 February. How do the emergency services coordinate such a situation? What challenges were faced by the KNRM?  And how did the courageous volunteers prevent a far worse scenario from developing?

Edward has talked with the crew members and other staff involved in this major KNRM operation and will offer us a unique insight into the day’s dramatic events.