Heroic rescue of passengers from burning yacht

MARCUS van Brabant, 26, got more than he bargained for when he took his jet-powered boat out for a spin on Fridayhe ended up rescuing three of the people forced to jump into the water when their luxury yacht caught fire and sank off Puerto Portals. Marcus, who is studying at Southampton University and is here visiting his parents, says that he saw a massive plume of black smoke and as he sailed out to investigate, he saw the yacht on fire. Seeing that a number of boats were standing off because they were worried about the flames reaching them too, he decided to sail downwind to avoid the smoke. As he did so, he saw several people in the water, and managed to pull two of them on board. “Their faces were shocked and they looked really bewildered,” he said, adding that “they didn't have time to put life jackets on and they were all fully clothed.” At this point Marcus spotted a third man in difficulties and “I managed to pluck him from the water, and pull him into my boat.” By this stage, other boats had seen what he was doing and moved in to pick up the other survivors. All eight people on board the yacht were saved.
Marcus ferried his three passengers back to port and after he had moored up and they were finally on shore, he said they looked as though they had been knocked for six and so he invited them for a beer. “Their faces lit up,” he says. Marcus added that they were all executives in a top German company, and “they are not even allowed to travel on the same plane, but they were all on the same yacht when it sank.” Marcus shrugs off his heroism modestly - it's the law of the sea and the duty of every sailor, he said.