Windsurfer Gets in Trouble near Teesside OWF, Dies in Hospital

A 72-year old windsurfer passed away on Saturday in a hospital in Middlesbrough, after  he had been found floating helplessly in the water near the Teesside offshore wind farm the day before.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution’s (RNLI) lifeboats and vessels serving the Teesside offshore wind farm engaged in a search and rescue operation of the windsurfer a little after 2pm on Friday, when the RNLI got a call saying that a windsurfer had gone missing off Redcar.

“The initial report was that he was about half to three-quarters of a mile offshore drifting towards to windfarm. He was found in that area ‒ which is a big area,” GazetteLive news site quoted RNLI spokesperson as saying.

The man was found 20 minutes later by a kitesurfer who spotted him in the water, and then tried to revive him. RNLI continued reanimation on shore until the ambulance arrived and took the man to James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.

Sadly, the windsurfer passed away on Saturday.

“When the conditions get difficult it can be easy to get caught out or can be easy to get stranded if the wind isn’t strong enough to bring you back to shore,” GazetteLive quoted Mark Watson, also a windsurfer, as explaining.