Two men rescued from toy inflatable

4th June 2009

At twenty-five minutes past ten yesterday evening (3rd June), Swansea Coastguard received a 999 call from a man in a toy inflatable dinghy. The man and his companion stated that they were unable to make shore near Ogmore-by-Sea, South Wales. Both had been in the water and had managed to climb back into the 11-foot, toy inflatable dinghy prior to phoning. The two men were cold and distraught. They are aged 40 and 29 and were wearing board shorts and t-shirts.

Llantwit Major Coastguard Rescue Team, RAF Rescue Helicopter 169 from Chivenor, Atlantic College RNLI inshore lifeboat and Porthcawl inshore lifeboat were requested to launch. Mumbles RNLI AWB were also requested but were stood down by the Coastguard before launching. Milford Haven Coastguard assisted Swansea Coastguard with preparation of computerised search plans, whilst Swansea were busy dealing with the immediacy of the incident.

Coastguards at Swansea maintained an open telephone call with the men throughout the incident and gave them advice to keep them reassured that help was on the way. The men did not know where they were or how far they had drifted from land, after putting to sea at approxiamately quarter to eight.

At eleven o'clock, Rescue 169 located the casualties, who were then rescued by Porthcawl inshore lifeboat, and the dinghy was recovered by Atlantic College inshore lifeboat. The men were then taken ashore and handed over to Llantwit Major Coastguard rescue team who looked after them until the Paramedics arrived.

They intended to stay close to shore, but very quickly got into trouble due to weather conditions. The wind was blowing Easterly Force 5 and offshore. They attempted to swim back to the beach but could not make it so they climbed back into dinghy and dialled 999.

Steve Matthews, Swansea Coastguard, Watch Manager said:

Going out in a toy inflatable dinghy at night was a recipe for disaster. These toy dinghies are just toys. They should not be used for putting to sea in under any circumstances. These two men are very lucky as the weather conditions were not very good at all. Never leave your craft and enter the water, apart from the effect of the cold water, a craft is easier to find than a person's head in the water.

The only saving grace for these two men was that they had a mobile phone with them which enabled them to call for help from the Coastguard, but even mobile phones are unreliable at sea. Thankfully, due to all concerned in this search and rescue incident, two men are safe and well back on dry land, the outcome could have so very easily been worse.

Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive

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