Yarmouth RNLI’s lifeboat volunteers launched into darkness on Tuesday night to assist a racing yacht with its sails tangled on its keel 2 miles south of St Catherine’s Point.
The lifeboat was tasked to launch by Solent Coastguard at 20:45 after reports were received that a 60ft racing yacht was in difficulty off the South of the Isle of Wight.
7 volunteers headed out of Yarmouth on board the Severn-class lifeboat and spent 45 minutes at sea to reach the casualty vessel.
Once on scene, it became clear what the issue was, and it was decided that nothing could be done whilst at sea.
With the yacht still making good headway at 5 knots, it was decided that Yarmouth Lifeboat would escort the boat back to safety. However, upon reaching The Needles, the boat was unable to tack up the Solent so a tow was established.
The casualty vessel was moored up just outside Yarmouth Harbour where the crew stayed until they were able to sort the entangled equipment out in the daylight the next morning.
Yarmouth Lifeboat was back alongside at the Harbour at 03:38 – nearly 7 hours after first being alerted to the situation.
On Monday, Cowes RNLI lifeboat was tasked to launch when Solent Coastguard alerted the volunteers to concerns for a yacht in possible difficulty on the Solent.
The lifeboat volunteers were paged at 23:18 but it was soon concluded, in consultation with HM Coastguard, that the vessel was a white-hulled 9m yacht that could be seen near to the eastern end of Cowes Breakwater and was not in any obvious danger.
The decision was taken not to launch the lifeboat but to maintain a watch from the boathouse.
However, after more consideration by the Coastguard Operations Centre at Fareham, the volunteers were paged for a 2nd time at 00:15 – this time to launch the lifeboat and redirect attention to a blue 6.5m yacht anchored in the commercial shipping channel near West Ryde Middle buoy. The casualty vessel had suffered engine problems.
The yacht, with 1 person on board, was in danger of being swamped by passing container ship traffic and therefore was taken under tow by the lifeboat to Trinity Landing in Cowes, where it was met by a Coastguard Rescue Team.
The lifeboat returned to station at 02:30.
