RNLB Frank and Anne Wilkinson (Relief Tamar All Weather Lifeboat 16-06) was launched this morning (Friday 18th August) at the request of UK (Solent) Coastguard to assess and, if necessary, assist a 40ft sailing yacht with 2 crew on board which had suffered engine failure.
The lifeboat launched at 11:18 to assist the vessel which was located near No Mans Land Fort and was unable to make its own way to Portsmouth under sail.
Conditions were challenging (Easterly force 5-6 with a moderate/rough sea) but it did not take long for the crew to locate the vessel and, having transferred a crew member to the yacht, it was decided that tow to Portsmouth was the safest option.
Once the yacht was safely alongside at Haslar Marina, they stayed alongside as conditions on the slipway back at Bembridge were too rough to recover. However, at 15:15 they were reassigned to locate and assist a 38ft yacht with an injured skipper and 6 other crew off Wootton.
Before they got there however, Cowes RNLI’s Atlantic 85 had dealt with the incident, as previously reported by Island Echo.
The crew therefore waited on hand as backup support just in case and, with conditions at the Bembridge slipway still reported as marginal, they then filled in some time by carrying out some training with the Coastguard Helicopter Rescue 175.
Frank and Anne Wilkinson and her crew returned to the Offshore Boathouse and were recovered by 18:00.
Well done everyone, very challenging conditions.
assist a 40ft sailing yacht with 2 crew on board which had suffered engine failure
Seeing as there was plenty of wind, why didn’t the crew simply hoist the sails and sail the boat into the harbour – or was that beyond their capabilities.
what kind of amateur, sunday afternoon sailor calls for help with engine failure, when they have plenty of wind power available and sails to make use of it.
And yor sailing experience/qualifications are what, exactly?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
over 40 years of sea experience zonko – that is how much
40 years of traveling back & forth on the ferry???
Unfortunately islander once again you have no idea what you are talking about!
The decision to call out the lifeboat was made by the UK (Solent) coastguard not the yacht skipper. The yacht skipper had his sails up and was sailing, No Mans Fort is the start of the boat channel into Portsmouth harbour and he did the right thing by informing the Coastguard of his problem.
QHM Portsmouth requires any vessel entering Portsmouth harbour to have engine power available vessels are also forbidden from tacking across the fairway and to keep to the small boat channel.
didn’t have to go into portsmouth though did he – could have gone to a small marina – like many others do – just a time waster who isn’t self sufficient and needs others, when he could have sorted out his own solution, without burdening the lifeboat
The real trouble will come when the RNLI can no longer afford to respond, due to the amounts being spent running the boats at Dover. I know of several people who have stopped paying the RNLI, which is a shame. But the cost of running the boats down there must be impacting the charities pennies. They had an advert out on prime time TV the other evening, so I would say the combination of people no longer paying in & the huge upturn in costs is becoming an issue
i actually contacted the rnli directly and advised them that I wouldn’t be donating one more penny to them, as they are being illegal dinghy peoples taxis – they should simply leave the illegals in the channel – will deter them