It was a long night for the volunteer lifeboat crew of Bembridge RNLI, who launched during the very early hours of this morning (Sunday) to take up the tow of a 39ft racing yacht.
Bembridge’s All Weather Lifeboat (ALB) was requested to launch by Solent Coastguard at just after midnight to relieve Selsey RNLI’s ALB, which had the racing yacht ‘Silver Shamrock’ – with 2 crew onboard – under tow about 7 miles south east of the Nab Tower. Selsey launched at around 18:30 after the casualty vessel reported a steering failure.
With the winds picking up overnight it was an unpleasant launch for Bembridge RNLI with a F6 East North Easterly swell. Within 40 minutes of launching the ALB took over the tow from Selsey. The initial plan had been to take the yacht to Portsmouth, however this was subsequently changed to Cowes where ‘Silver Shamrock’ had set out from earlier in the day.
Having successfully completed the tow by about 04:15, the Alfred Albert Williams remained alongside Trinity Pontoon for just under an hour to allow for the tide to drop and the swell on the slipway back at Bembridge to reduce enough for a safe recovery.
Bembridge’s All Weather Lifeboat departed Cowes at 05:10 and returned to station via Sparkes Marina in Chichester to hand back Selsey’s tow line.
The Alfred Albert Williams (Tamar 16-17) was rehoused by 07:15.
