Donaghadee RNLI lifeboat assists 10 metre yacht in difficulty off County Down coast
On Monday 24 April Donaghadee RNLI lifeboat volunteers were paged in order to assist a 10 metre yacht with three crew members onboard that was in difficulty off the County Down coast.
At approximately 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 that was suffering from engine failure.
The location was just off Burr Point near Ballyhalbert in County Down.
In a north-westerly 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 be onscene with them at 8.45pm.
During the passage volunteer crew member David Cull was able to liaise by VHF with the skipper of the yacht and reassure him that the lifeboat was en route with their estimated time of arrival, and give advice on how to make the yacht ready to receive a towline.
Once on scene and in now faded light the crew members were able to quickly establish the towline with the crew members of the yacht and begin the tow back to Bangor Harbour.
At an average speed of 7.5 knots, the lifeboat with the casualty vessel arrived at Bangor Harbour roughly 2.5 hrs later where it was passed into the care of the Coastguard Rescue Team.
The lifeboat then proceeded to return to Donaghadee Harbour at full speed to be back on station and ready for their next call out by midnight.
Philip McNamara, Donaghadee Lifeboat Coxswain 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 call out, a great crew to work with”.
Donaghadee lifeboat station has been operating since 1910. To learn more about the lifeboat station go to:
