Donaghadee RNLI’s lifeboat volunteers were paged on Monday (24 April) to assist a 10-metre yacht with three crew members onboard that was in difficulty off the Co Down coast in Northern Ireland.
Around 8.10pm on Monday evening, the crew were asked to launch the RNLI Trent class relief lifeboat Macquarie to go to the assistance of the yacht which had experienced engine failure just off Burr Point near Ballyhalbert.
In a northwesterly wind with good visibility — albeit fading light — and a calm sea state, the crew were able to make full speed to the last reported location of the yacht and reached the scene at 8.45pm.
During passage, volunteer crew member David Cull was able to liaise by VHF with the skipper of the yacht to reassure him of their pending arrival and give advice on how to make the yacht ready to receive a towline.
Once on scene and in now faded light, the lifeboat volunteers were able to quickly establish the towline with yacht’s crew and begin the tow back to Bangor Harbour, where they arrived roughly two-and-a-half hours later and where the yacht’s crew were passed into the care of the local coastguard rescue team.
Speaking following the callout, Donaghadee RNLI coxswain Philip McNamara said: “The skipper of this yacht did absolutely the correct thing in asking for assistance as soon as he knew he had an issue, and had everything ready to make it easy for us to quickly establish the tow once alongside.
“The importance of having a means of communication, and on this occasion a VHF, cannot be underestimated.
“This was a classic example of how well this works when things go unexpectedly wrong. As always, my thanks to the volunteers who dropped everything to attend the callout — a great crew to work with.”