< Go Back Launched On Service To Lone Yachtsman 22/03/15 Posted: Mar 25, 2015
22/03/2015 Lytham
St Annes
Solo yachtsman in
difficulty given assistance by Lytham
St Annes volunteer lifeboat crew Lone sailor brought ashore by the RNLI Sea Rescue Charity’s Lifeboat.
Setting out
from Fleetwood on 21st March 2015 to enjoy a leisurely sail home to mid
Wales, an elderly yachtsman found himself in trouble when his 9.5 metre (31
foot) auxiliary yacht ran aground in the mouth of the Ribble Estuary on
Saturday afternoon. Various problems
with the yacht including a fault with the engine and the auto pilot contributed
to the vessel stranding a mile south of the Lytham St Annes Coastguard Station building
on North Beach car park.
Photo by Ben McGarry- Lytham St Annes Lifeboat Her Majesty the Queen alongside the grounded yacht with volunteer Lifeboat crew member Avril Trevorrow attending to the anchor chain.
Holyhead
Coastguard requested the launch of the Lytham St Annes Mersey class all-weather
lifeboat to give assistance and the crew were paged at 4.19 pm. The lifeboat set out as soon as the crew had
assembled but found the yacht already in shallow water and, being a fin keel
vessel, already starting to list on to her starboard side. The lifeboat Her Majesty the Queen went alongside and waited until the yacht was
fully aground before the volunteer crew members laid out the yacht’s anchor in
readiness for the next high tide.
The owner of the
yacht was brought into the lifeboat and taken ashore at 5.30pm to warm up and
wait until the yacht was due to re-float.
On Saturday
evening Lytham St Annes Inshore Lifeboat (ILB) Sally was launched to return the yachtsman, and then tow the vessel
to a safe anchorage off Starr Gate from where the man planned to sail in
daylight back to Fleetwood. The ILB
returned to her station after two hours at sea.
A third
service call to the same vessel started the following morning when the owner
called Holyhead Coastguard requesting help when he could not start the engine. The volunteer lifeboat crew were paged at 9.41
am and the ILB was taken by road to St Annes and launched there. In good conditions the Sally took the yacht in tow and headed north at the same time
requesting Fleetwood Lifeboat launch to take over the tow for the final
entrance to the River Wyre. The ILB had
reached Rossall when the Fleetwood Lifeboat arrived and relieved them of the
casualty. The ILB then returned to
station and was ready again for service by 12.35 pm after cleaning, checking and refuelling had been
completed.
Crew member
Ben McGarry later said that it became necessary to get the yacht to a place of
safety as one thing after another seemed to be failing on the vessel as time
went by.
David
Forshaw (Lytham St Annes RNLI Lifeboat Press Officer)
