The 45-year-old man who drowned on Friday after jumping from a catamaran connecting Cambrils and Salou jumped into the water in a challenge with his brother: to see who would reach the shore first by swimming. The man died before reaching the coast, while his 43-year-old brother survived.
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The two tourists, of British origin, were with their family and took the recreational boat Dorimar, which connects the two coastal municipalities of Tarragona, from port to port. Both drank a lot, police sources explain, during the trip. Until the ferry captain refused to serve them more alcohol, according to the Diari de Tarragona.
The two men then decided to jump out of one of the catamaran’s windows as it was already approaching the coast. The goal was to swim to the Ponent beach in Cambrils, and there reach a beach bar. The parents, who were also participating in the family tourist trip, and other crew members alerted about what happened.
Finally, only one of the two brothers reached the beach alive. At 18:41 hours, the Medical Emergency System (SEM) received the alert that one of the two people had drowned before reaching the coast. They mobilized three ambulances and a team of psychologists to attend to the rest of the family members.
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Since June 15, the start date of the summer campaign, 26 people have died on Catalan beaches. The figure exceeds the 20 fatalities recorded between June 15 and September 16 on Catalan beaches during 2025. It is also the worst summer since records exist in Spain, which began in 2015, with the National Drowning Report of the Royal Spanish Federation of Rescue and Lifesaving (RFESS). From June to August, 239 deaths were recorded.
In addition to the British victim, two other people drowned this weekend in Catalonia. The first, a 78-year-old man, was pulled unconscious from the water on a beach in Lloret de Mar (Girona) and resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. The SEM mobilized three ground units and one air unit to the scene. Later, another 69-year-old man, also French, died while swimming on Rovellada beach, in Colera (Girona).
