Three Belgians, belonging to a crew of six, drowned when their yacht, Be Happy, came to grief upon the rocky coastline of the Balearic islands (Formentera) yesterday.

The crew were four friends and a couple, of whom two men and a woman perished (aged between 45 and 50) whilst two women and a man were helped to safety by locals.

The 11m-long yacht had been anchored in a bay in calm weather, but during the night, whilst all of them were sleeping, the waves got up, dragging the anchor, pushing the craft onto the rocks in front of Caló de Formentera.

The first to react were a group of locals and a tourist; emergency calls soon brought firemen, along with air and sea rescue units.

There was some confusion at first as the craft’s radio beacon was picked up in the Sea Rescue control room in Madrid identifying itself as the French yacht Finiye before it was establish that the craft was in fact registered as Be Happy.

When the yacht dropped anchor the winds were mild, blowing from the South West, which means that the place chosen was ideal. However, the weather report also gave notice that around midnight the wind would swing round to blowing from the north at around 60 kph with 2-metre waves, meaning that the rocks were to the lee and the place chosen to anchor was perilous.

During that same afternoon, seven other craft that were anchored nearby were moved to a safer anchorages, so the locals were surprised to see a yacht appear around eight in the evening and drop anchor, just 150 metres from the rocky shore.

It was early next morning that the craft was blown onto the rocks after dragging its anchor during most of the night whilst those on board slept.

Around 08.00h the air-sea-rescue helicopter, Helimer 213, arrived above the stricken craft and with considerable skill managed to recover the three bodies from the rocks and wreckage.

As for the three survivors, they have since been released from hospital but not before receiving psychiatric support as well as treatment for severe bruising.

Of the couple on board, the wife survived but the husband did not.

(News: Formentera, Balearic Islands, Spain)