Further to our VB article yesterday about the Coastguard rescue at Blackgang, Tony Robson from Freshwater Lifeboat has sent us this report on their involvement with the rescue, as well as details of another that took place on Sunday. Ed
Blackgang rescue
The 6m Maxim speedboat boat was beached in surf and filled with water sand and shingle. By the time the helicopter had finished ferrying the casualties away, we were unable to pull the boat off the beach due to falling tide.
We returned at 8:30pm on the rising tide and with the assistance of members from Ventnor coastguard who walked to the scene, we pulled the boat off the beach.
Left in the surf she would have been wrecked by morning and given it was a brand new boat none of us wanted to see this.
The boat was full of gravel and too heavy to float by itself so we towed it to Freshwater Bay and deposited her in front of our slipway where our recovery winch pulled her above high water line ready for recovery by crane.
Large use of resources
We used 400l of petrol and 6 boat crew for 9 hours as well as ground crew ashore – all voluntarily. It is probably time that independent lifeboats are recognised for the work we do not just in helping casualties at sea but in saving the insurance industry significant sums of money.
We’ve recovered around £80K of hardware which would otherwise have been lost in the last couple of days alone. And without the right to claim salvage which would typically be 30% of hull value.
A rescue at Scratchels Bay
Unrelated to above, we also rescued a family of four from Scratchels Bay on Sunday 27th June.
They had beached their Jet Boat and in doing so knackered the Jet drive and were stranded. Their family included a baby.
They were trapped in Scratchels Bay with a fair swell rollign in. Our D Class landed in the bay and ferried the casualties out to the Lifeboat which transferred them to Yarmouth. Then returned to recover the boat from being wrecked in the surf back to Freshwater Bay where we again beached her to await recovery by its owner.
Freshwater Lifeboat needs your support
The Freshwater Lifeboat is called out on average around 30 times a year and last year helped over 200 people in difficulty at sea.
They rely on donations from the public, so please consider digging deep and making a donation.
To find out more about the Freshwater Lifeboat check out their informative Website.
