When a distress call goes out at sea, there is no time to improvise. Every movement has to be practised. Every handover rehearsed. Every communication chain tested, under pressure, with real complexity, alongside partners you may rarely work with in normal operations.
That’s the logic behind the SAREx: the Search and Rescue Exercise organised by the DGzRS (Die Seenotretter – the German Maritime Search and Rescue Service). Twice a year, this large-scale exercise brings together vessels, helicopters, medical teams and port services to work through realistic scenarios from search to evacuation.
FAIRPLAY-34 as the casualty vessel
At the SAREx Wilhelmshaven in April 2026, our tug FAIRPLAY-34 played an active role in the exercise – not as a rescue unit, but as the vessel in distress. In the scenario, FAIRPLAY-34 was assumed to have been involved in a collision with an unknown object, with injured crew members on board requiring immediate evacuation.
The search and rescue vessel HANS HACKMACK sent her daughter boat EMMI alongside. A team of Seenotretter boarded, assessed the situation and worked through the casualty transfer procedures using specialist rescue stretchers. Overhead, a helicopter from Northern Helicopter GmbH supported the operation – winching, coordinating, running its own procedures in parallel, all co-ordinated by DGzRS-operated Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) Bremen.
A second scenario on the following day involved the search and rescue vessel PIDDER LÜNG responding to another simulated post-collision casualty, this time with water ingress on board.
A network that works together
What makes SAREx remarkable is the depth of collaboration it requires. At Wilhelmshaven, the exercise brought together various DGzRS search and rescue units, the German Navy’s search and rescue helicopters (Sea Lion), Northern Helicopter, the Wasserschutzpolizei, I.S.A.R. Germany’s Emergency Training Group – who provided realistic casualty role players with make-up injuries – and the emergency services of Wilhelmshaven on land, including the Feuerwehr, DRK and ASB, who managed the patient reception area in the harbour.
Three bigger search and rescue vessels and four smaller search and rescue boats participated in total. The scenarios moved from an area search for missing kayakers on day one through to complex injury management and helicopter evacuation following a hypothetical incident involving commercial shipping on day two. Every sequence was followed by a detailed debrief.
Why this matters
For FAIRPLAY TOWAGE, contributing to this kind of exercise is a natural extension of what we do every day: operating reliably alongside other maritime professionals, in conditions that don’t always go to plan. Our tugs work in 24 European ports. They are part of the maritime infrastructure that depends on exactly this kind of coordinated readiness.
We are grateful to the DGzRS for including FAIRPLAY 34 in the exercise, and to every organisation that gives up time and resources to train for emergencies.
Photo: Die Seenotretter – DGzRS / German Maritime Search and Rescue Service
