Red Bay RNLI in County Antrim completed a nine-hour callout in rough weather conditions to rescue two people and their two dogs after their 55-foot yacht got into difficulty off the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland in the early hours of Tuesday morning (27 August).
Belfast Coastguard requested that the volunteer crew launch their all-weather lifeboat at 6:20 a.m. and assist their RNLI colleagues at Campbeltown, who were already on the scene.
The sailors had raised the alarm at approximately 1.30 am when their yacht lost steering three miles west of Machrihanish. Campbeltown RNLI was requested to launch their all-weather lifeboat initially and having assessed the situation when they got on scene north of the Mull at 3.30 am and knowing the sailors couldn’t make any safe onward progress, they proceeded to set up a tow. However, during the tow, the yacht began to take on water and due to the need for a salvage pump, a request for assistance from Red Bay RNLI was made.
The lifeboat launched from Cushendall under Coxswain Joe McCollam, with six crew members onboard, and made its way to the scene. On arrival at approximately 8 a.m., two crew members were safely transferred onto the yacht, along with a salvage pump to deal with the ingress of water, while Campbeltown RNLI continued the tow.
Weather conditions at the time were rough, with 30 knots of wind blowing amid a large sea swell.
Both lifeboat crews brought the casualties safely into Campbeltown at 2 p.m. before Red Bay RNLI made their return journey, arriving home at 3.30 p.m. this afternoon.
Speaking following the call out, Red Bay RNLI Coxswain Joe McCollam said: ‘We would like to wish the sailors well following their ordeal in the middle of last night, and we want to thank our colleagues from Campbeltown for their efforts - this was a great example of coordination and teamwork.
‘Both crews deserve great credit for their work, which, for those in Red Bay, began shortly before half-six this morning and saw us launching into and working in extremely rough and challenging conditions. This was a nine-hour shout involving a 20-mile tow into Campbeltown, and both crews are to be commended on completing a successful operation.’
