off Morocco - Catamaran abandoned off Morocco; two French sailors survive four days adrift in a dinghy
Believing their flooding catamaran was sinking, two Frenchmen took to their dinghy off northern Morocco; the catamaran was later found still afloat and towed empty into Asilah, while the pair were picked up by a merchant ship after four days at sea.
What happened.
In late May 2026 off northwest Morocco, two French sailors believed their catamaran was sinking from water ingress and abandoned it for their dinghy. The catamaran never sank — it was found still afloat off Tangier and towed empty into Asilah, raising fears the pair were lost. In fact they spent four days and nights adrift in the dinghy before a merchant ship found and rescued them alive on 28 May. Both survived.
In the last week of May 2026, two French sailors were aboard a catamaran off the northwest coast of Morocco, near Tangier in the Atlantic approaches to the Strait of Gibraltar, when water began coming into the boat. Convinced they were sinking — the cause of the ingress was never established — they abandoned the catamaran around Sunday 24 May and took to their small dinghy. The catamaran, however, did not go down. It was later found still floating about three nautical miles off Tangier and was towed, empty, into the harbour of Asilah. The sight of the abandoned boat with no one aboard raised fears that the two had been lost at sea, and a search followed. In reality the pair were drifting in their open dinghy, and they endured four days and four nights on the water before a passing merchant ship spotted them and took them aboard, alive, on 28 May 2026. Both survived an ordeal that came far closer to tragedy than it needed to — because the boat they had given up on was still afloat the whole time. It is a stark illustration of an old lifeboat maxim: only step off when you have to step up, into the raft, because the mothership is actually going under.
What it teaches.
- 1Step up into the liferaft — don't abandon a boat that still floats. These sailors left a catamaran that never sank and spent four days adrift in a dinghy beside open water. Unless the hull is clearly going under, the disabled boat is a bigger, more visible, better-stocked liferaft than anything you can launch.
- 2Carry a registered EPIRB or PLB and send a Mayday with your position before you abandon. Their catamaran being found empty triggered a search for missing people; a beacon in the dinghy would have brought rescuers to them in hours, not four days. The alert and the position are what turn a disappearance into a rescue.
- 3Fight the flooding before you give up the boat. Find the source, use bungs, tape and the biggest pump or bucket you have, and check whether the ingress is actually winning. The cause here was never even established — meaning it might have been stoppable. Diagnose first; abandon only once you are sure the water is winning.
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