More action out on the water for Cowes RNLI, George tells is more in his own words. Ed
The professionalism of Cowes lifeboat members was twice put to the test when they assisted pleasure boats on the wind-swept Solent this afternoon – the first involving a broken down motorboat and the other a dismasted yacht.
The motorboat, the 7.6 metre Smooth Move, was reported soon after mid-day to have engine failure off Lepe Spit . The boat, on passage from East Cowes to Lymington with a couple and their two dogs on board, had anchored to await assistance.
Cowes lifeboat, with Kevin Richardson at the helm, eventually towed Smooth Move through the rough seas back to Shepards Wharf Marina, Cowes.
Rescue for dismantled Duo
Meanwhile another lifeboat crew member, Neil Archer, was asked to urgently join David Lewis aboard a Cowes harbour launch, about to race to the aid of a dismasted yacht in the path of an on-coming oil tanker off Cowes.
The Gillingham based yacht, the 29 foot Duo, with two people on board, was under full sail while on passage to Portsmouth Harbour from Poole when the 30 foot aluminium mast came crashing down cross the deck. Fortunately the accident was spotted in time by the crew of a pilot boat for them to instruct the tanker to slightly alter course. The first Solent Coastguards knew of the dismasting was when informed by an eagle-eyed shore watcher at Cowes.
The crippled yacht, with some of its sails still draped helplessly in the water, was towed back to Shepards Wharf Marina by the harbour launch.
Members of Cowes lifeboat station to the rescue
Lifeboat Operations Manager, Mark Southwell, said in fact all the personnel involved in the two rescues are members of Cowes lifeboat station, for as well as working for the harbourmaster David Lewis is also a deputy launching authority for the lifeboat.
“The text-book way those aboard the harbour launch so quickly and ably responded to the dismasting incident fully exemplified the expertise within the membership of Cowes lifeboat. Bearing in mind a well-publicised collision between a yacht and a tanker in the recent Cowes Week, it is always of especially great concern when a pleasure boat is in potential danger in the main shipping lane.”
Images: The Smooth Move, soon after arrival at Shepards Wharf Marina and Neil Archer (left) and David Lewis, by the dismasted Duo.
