Super saver. Words: Katrin Beck Pictures: Robert Hack. Life boat

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1 Super saver Words: Katrin Beck Pictures: Robert Hack Life boat The lifeboat crew of the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service in Sassnitz has a new home from home. A gleaming white, 36.5-meter lifeboat with a top speed of 25 knots: the Harro Koebke. It started service a few weeks ago at its base on the island of Rügen. Now the lifeboatmen are making their occasional home comfortable and getting the boat ready for duty. Monday morning on Rügen. The lifeboat Harro Koebke gleams in the sunlight. It is still quiet in Sassnitz harbor this early in the morning. The first few pleasure boats are on their way to the famous Rügen chalk cliffs and a few sailing yachts are heading out into the Baltic Sea. Moored on the western quay are a blue-and-white tug, next to it the Harro Koebke, and next to that a blue police launch. At first sight, everything appears in a slumber. Only on board the lifeboat is the hum of activity to be detected. Actually, it is the vacuum cleaner affectionately named Fiffi by the crew accompanied by the clatter of pans in the galley and the opening and closing of doors the normal early morning routine on the Harro Koebke. Coxswain Hartmut Mühlwald and his five-man crew are preparing themselves and the lifeboat for a new day. A quiet morning like this is the best time for Jörg Bollnow and Dirk Neumann to finish the new net for rescuing people at sea and fixing it to the deck railings. At the moment we are still settling in, explains Captain Mühlwald. Lots of things on board are not yet quite the way the lifeboatmen would like. Before, on the Wilhelm Kaisen, we repaired and maintained; now we are arranging things in the best possible way for rescue operations and life on board, relates the likeable coxswain, adding that, We will undoubtedly need six months before everything is the way we want. Tanned and weatherbeaten, he leans against the railings in his red overalls. His blue eyes proudly survey his new

2 boat. He gives the impression of someone you can rely on and who keeps his word. His two co-seamen, Bollnow and Neumann, are working on the net again. They say very little. Unsurprisingly, because that is the way of the North Germans. And when a word or two is exchanged between these easy-going mariners, it comes out as a mixture of typical plattdeutsch with a smattering of East German dialect. That OK? Yeah, fine. Suddenly a shrill alarm sounds. A ship in trouble? A rescue call? The crew remains completely relaxed. Except for Captain Mühlwald, who races to the bridge to see what s up and returns to his colleagues as calm as before. False alarm. It was just the telephone ringing. There are one or two things here we still have to get used to, Mühlwald explains. Sassnitz lifeboat station The lifeboat Harro Koebke and its dinghy Notarius form the second largest unit of the fleet operated by the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service, the DGzRS. It is also the service s biggest lifeboat operating in the Baltic Sea. It is stationed at Sassnitz on the island of Rügen. And its patch is the stretch of the Baltic Sea between Cape Arkona and the island of Greifswalder Oie off Rügen. The 36.5 meter craft replaces an old lifeboat which was decommissioned after 34 years service. The permanent crew consists of eleven lifeboatmen, five of whom are on watch, i.e. on duty on the lifeboat, at any one time. On average, the lifeboat crew spend 14 days at a stretch on board, during which time they are on standby around the clock. There is a tradition of sea rescue on Rügen going back more than 100 years. The Harro Koebke is the fifth lifeboat to be stationed at Sassnitz. Like its predecessor, the Wilhelm Kaisen, it is powered by MTU engines. Two Type 8V 4000 M70 units and one Type 16V 4000 M71 propel the vessel at speeds up to 25 knots, that is a good 46 kilometers per hour. The eleven crew members work together in alternating shifts. There are also twelve volunteer lifeboatmen who step in if there is an emergency. At least five crew are on duty at a time. They get on well together, always ready with a joke and a smile. And they are a close-knit team; everyone knows what their job is and trusts the others to do theirs. That is an important factor in rescue missions. In emergency situations we have to be able to rely on one another, explains Mühlwald. It is not just in a rescue operation that things have to be just right; the team has to work well in the day-to-day routine as well. Five of them live together in very cramped conditions onboard ship. They each have their own cabin, of course, but they are only allowed off the ship for a very short time when on duty. Our days consist of a lot of routine work, Mühlwald relates. It starts with the seamen you can tell them by their red trousers making breakfast. In return, the crew with the green trousers the engineers make supper, he adds. There are no women on board. That would be too complicated. However, the smaller vessels which are manned exclusively by volunteers, do have female crew members, Mühlwald points out.

3 Manfred Lucas is first engineer on the Harro Koebke. He is unmistakably the team s calming influence. Relaxed, in control and rather thoughtful. In the engine room in the innards of the lifeboat, he writes down all the important data from the display of each engine control stand. In his notebook, he meticulously records the coolant temperatures, pressures and other operating data of the three MTU engines. But most of the information, such as the amount of fuel remaining or the fuel injection pressure is provided as a data printout. In the past we really had our work cut out. But today there are so many electronic systems that there is hardly anything we can repair ourselves any more, Lucas recounts. There is a tinge of sadness in his voice when he says that. Lucas still remembers the old MTU Series 331 and 396 engines. He worked on them often enough. The new automation system, Callosum, is fantastic alright. The Callosum system monitors and controls not only the propulsion units but also the ship s services. So I don t have to go into the engine room as often when we re at sea, the experienced engineer observes. Any problems are now indicated on the computer, the man in the green overalls elucidates. He puts his glasses back on and writes down some more figures. Very shortly afterwards, Manfred Lucas is standing in the galley. Today there are mustard eggs on the menu. Manfred s the only one who can cook them properly, so that s what we asked for, enthuses engineer Kay Trottnow. A different member of the crew does the cooking each day. We always decide on the weekly meal plan at the start of the shift on a Wednesday. Lunch is served punctually at twelve every day an important team ritual for everyone on board.

4 New home from home The DGzRS began planning for the new lifeboat five years ago. The Sassnitz crew were involved in the process from the start. The lifeboat service granted many of our wishes, but not all. We would have liked a bigger lifeboat, smiles coxswain Mühlwald. But that was too expensive. The DGzRS is financed exclusively from voluntary donations and receives no contributions from the taxpayer. Construction of the boat at the Fassmer shipyard finally started two and a half years ago. One of the crew was very often on site. And when it came to installing the engines, it was obvious who would be in attendance Manfred Lucas. Now, only a few weeks after commissioning, he is already familiar not only with the MTU engines but also all the other systems on board. His worry at the moment is that the organic water recycling plant is not working properly it isn t cleaning the waste water. He measures the bacteria content every day. We are gradually getting on top of the problem, he grumbles with a glance at a large test-tube containing brown liquid. The planners brought others into the process besides the Sass nitz crew. Lifeboatmen from Helgoland were also involved in the discussions. The reason being that the lifeboat s dinghy is an innovation. In the beginning, we weren t convinced at all by this rigid-hull inflatable, Mühlwald admits. Then the British company came over and we were able to test out the dinghy together with the Helgoland crew. It completely convinced us, the skipper enthuses. The Sassnitz crew are now the first unit in the DGzRS with a rigid-hull inflatable dinghy. The Helgoland station will get the second in September. Engineer Kay Trottnow is completely in raptures. He and two colleagues were sent to Scotland for a training course on the new dinghy. We had to tackle three or four-meter waves head-on at full speed. It takes some nerve, but it was absolutely awesome. The dinghy, which is capable of 32 knots, is accommodated in the stern of the lifeboat. Like the Harro Koebke, it is designed to be self-righting if it capsizes. Anchors aweigh In the afternoon, the Harro Koebke heads out on an exercise. Before the engines can be started up, Manfred Lucas has to go down into the engine room. The MTU power units are always pre-heated. That helps them start up more easily. Lucas checks over the three engines and gives the goa head within a couple of minutes. Now the engines can be fired up. The deck underfoot vibrates slightly and the rich hum of the MTU diesels can be heard. The lifeboat glides slowly out of Sassnitz harbor. Past Europe s longest dockside towards the famous chalk cliffs of Rügen. The bridge is a hive of activity. Seaman Dirk Neumann is at the helm. He attentively monitors the radar and the other instruments. Coxswain Mühlwald stands next to him with binoculars. Even though this is just a run out for the engines, the men still check the sea around them to make sure nothing is amiss. Neumann slowly takes the speed up to 25 knots. Manfred Lucas is sitting in the background. He has come back up from the engine room and is checking on his engines on the Callosum monitor. Injection pressure, temperature and fuel consump tion. Everything OK, calls Lucas, Engines running smoothly. Everything on the sea is OK too. A few sailing enthusiasts are taking advantage of the fine weather. But all are in good shape. If necessary, we rescue people who fall ill at sea but primarily we deal with people whose vessels have got into trouble at sea, relates Mühlwald. Though yesterday we had to tow out a sailing yacht that had run aground in the shallows.

5 The crew is called out on rescue operations 60 to 80 times a year. In very urgent situations, they can call on the rescue helicopter. But in most cases, the team is accompanied by doctors from the local area. Below deck there is a small medical room equipped with all the necessary equipment such as oxygen cylinders and ECG. At least one of the crew is a trained paramedic. But all crew members are capable of the fundamentals. They all regularly attend courses, including the resuscitation course once a year. Sometimes, a rescue operation involves towing a small boat back to port, Mühlwald explains. For large ships, the tug is called out from Sassnitz harbor. So that the exercise is not completely pointless, they test out the new fire extinguisher pump. Dirk Neumann brings the Harro Koebke gradually to a halt for the purpose. Once again, Lucas gives the go-ahead because this time the V16 Series 4000 has to be run up to maximum revs. It roars loudly and suddenly the water from the pump shoots over the bridge. The team tests panning right and left, though they can t quite get the hang of changing the elevation. We need to practice that some more, Mühlwald concludes. The lifeboat is, after all, the new member of the team. Contact Thomas Müller Tel.: t.mueller@mtu-online.com