Strong words of advice were given to the skipper of a yacht after he was rescued on the Solent last night (Tuesday).
Gosport Independent Lifeboat was tasked by Solent Coastguard to the assist the 19ft vessel, with a tow soon being established.
Cowes RNLI lifeboat was out on a training exercise when they were requested to take over the tow from Gosport Lifeboat, which was successfully completed close to Gosport’s station at around 21:30.
With the yacht under tow and heading towards Cowes Harbour, The Needles Coastguard Rescue Team were tasked to assist on the shoreside at Trinity Landing.
Coastguard officers gave strong words of safety advice to the lone skipper, who had only owned the sailing yacht for a matter of days.
More bad sailing off the Isle of Wight
A fool and his money are easily parted !
What a complete nob….
Anyone can buy a boat or yacht and go to sea without any training or instruction.
Possibly putting other lives at risk if they need rescuing.
It is something that needs to be address and enforced – like CBT (Compulsory Bike Training) before you can go out on a motorbike on the road.
Compulsory BASIC training…….
Rather opaque and potentially misleading “story” from IE, as usual. Just because he only “owned the boat for a matter of days” doesn’t in fact mean he is an inexperienced skipper – like when you buy a new car and have a prang but have actually been driving for decades.
People are way to quick to judge without ALL the facts.
I think the skipper being alone did it for me, single handed on a night sail is very ballsy, even for an experienced sailor. I know not everyone will agree – If you become fatigued or unwell your choices are limited.
Oh perhaps you should tell that to Robin Knox-Johnson and all the other single handed sailors
As others are quick to offer their opinions on others without knowledge or fact.
Very true so button it
Oh . all you knowalls and your loud ignorant mouths
Nothing to do with bad sailing, fools and their money or lack of training or experience. You dont know what training or experience the skipper had
The yacht suffered engine failure!.
That can happen to any boat from a tiny dinghy to a state of the art warship or cruise liner. Ive had a nearly new outboard fail. Ive also been one of the crew of a well maintained yacht that suffered catastrophic engine failure while in the Channel Islands ……… we sailed it back to Chichester without a working engine.
The skipper in the current story seems to have done the right thing in alerting the “authorities” to his predicament rather than attempt to sail an unfamiliar yacht single handed at night.even though it must have been a perfect evening with gentle winds for a pleasant night sail.
I would have had no worries about being out in a yacht like that at night , single handed in conditions like last night.
In fact I have owned an identical yacht for over 40 years and have sailed it single handed at night in the Solent on a number of occasions
If you dont know all the facts keep it zipped !
Oh dear oh dear, I’m glad you have the experience to comment, are you saying the skipper of this yacht has the same experience as yourself or telling us how good seamanship and yourself go hand in hand, if the latter how is that relevant to this article ?
Did this skipper also like yourself have the foresight to have onboard an auxiliary engine.
If so why did he receive the stern taking too mentioned in the article……. Was you present or are you presuming the facts as well !
The yacht’s engine is an outboard engine… you can see it in the picture,
O jolly hope Giles is ok dashing