At quarter past eight this morning, Falmouth Coastguard was contacted by the master of the Motor Tanker Sea Marlin. The crew of the tanker had received on their VHF radio a pan pan urgency call. They were able to identify from the call that a yacht had become dismasted and was in difficulty. They relayed the urgency call which was made by the yacht 's crew on their handheld radio to Falmouth Coastguard. Falmouth Coastguard asked the master of the tanker if he would turn around his vessel to provide a communications link and standby the yacht until the arrival of the lifeboat. He duly obliged and stood by the yacht and created a lee. The Penlee RNLI lifeboat was requested to launch and now has the yacht under tow and the tanker is continuing its passage. The German flagged tanker is on passage from Port Gerome, France to Providence in Canada and is 26,548 GT The yacht and the crew are believed to come from France.

Marc Thomas, Watch Manager, Falmouth Coastguard said: Due to the yacht becoming dismasted their communication capability was limited to their handheld VHF radio. They managed to make communication with the tanker as it was passing who then passed on the call to the Coastguard.

This incident is a good example of one seafarer assisting another when the yacht's options were limited due to its dismasting. We were pleased we were able to assist the French sailors.