Christiaan Woestenburg’s vessel was being searched in St Mary’s harbour on Isles of Scilly when he jumped from mast, inquest hears

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A suspected drug smuggler plunged to his death from the mast of a yacht as it was being searched by border force officers in the Isles of Scilly, an inquest has heard.

Christiaan Woestenburg, whose boat had been towed into harbour by lifeboat charity the RNLI, told officers he was going to fetch some equipment to open a locked hatch on the yacht, Windrose.

But Dutch-born Woestenburg, 62, climbed up the 12-metre-high (40ft) mast of the yacht before apparently jumping onto the granite quay of St Mary’s harbour.

An inquest jury in Plymouth in Devon was told the 11-metre (36ft) Windrose was in the Atlantic heading to Holland when it suffered problems with its rigging and mast 16 miles off Scilly.

Woestenburg called out the St Mary’s lifeboat on Sunday 16 June 2013 after three days without sleep. When the border force heard where the vessel was they sent a cutter to St Mary’s and boarded the yacht searching for hidden drugs.

Woestenburg’s younger brother, Otto, said his sibling was an experienced sailor who had made several transatlantic voyages. He said he had bought the yacht in Turkey in 2009 and had sailed to South America and the Dutch Caribbean several times.

He said he had seen reports that a “very large” amount of drugs was found on the boat, but he said: “I cannot believe that he would have tried to smuggle drugs. His friends are in shock and disbelief. He was, in fact, anti-drugs.” He said Woestenburg lived frugally and gave generously to charity.

St Mary’s assistant harbour master, Alan Hartwell, told the jury the skipper had been at sea for 15 days and away from home for four years. Hartwell said: “He looked completely shattered. He said it was the worst trip he had.”

Home Office forensic pathologist Dr Russell Delaney said Woestenburg had been sailing from Portugal and was believed to be heading to Holland.

He said: “He was towed to the Isles of Scilly by the RNLI. The boat was tied to a mooring in the harbour. Border Force received some intelligence and the boat was boarded and searched.”

Delaney said there was a secured hatch down below and the yachtsman passed officers to go to the deck to fetch hydraulic equipment to open it.

Once on deck he climbed the mast. “He then jumped off the top and landed on the solid granite harbourside,” said Delaney. The pathologist said he landed on the quayside. An off-duty paramedic came to his aid and he was airlifted to Truro on the mainland where he was declared dead.

Delaney said his postmortem revealed the yachtsman died from head, chest and pelvic injuries that were consistent with a fall from height.

He added: “He was immediately unconscious and unaware of what happened. The head injury was unsurviveable.” There was no evidence he had been forcefully restrained.

Blood tests showed Woestenburg was slightly over the drink-drive limit and the pathologist said this may have “affected his decision-making but he was not incapacitated by it”.



The jurors were told that a “large quantity of class A drugs” was found on board. They were shown police photos of scores of tightly packed packages of drugs hidden in a water tank under a bolted lid.

PC Matt Collier, who was on duty that evening, said Woestenburg “dived” onto the quay.



The inquest continues.