Allan Grant (centre) and some of the lifeboat volunteers who saved his life, including (left) Andy Stoner

Hanging on: 2-hour river ordeal

Photo: RNLI/Weston-super-Mare

Friday 28 March 2025

RNLI volunteers rush to save the life of a fisherman after his boarding dinghy capsizes in the freezing cold waters of the River Banwell.

Volunteer crew members converged on Weston-super-Mare Lifeboat Station last October to prepare for an immediate launch following reports of an empty dinghy and a person in the water near Sand Point in the fast-flowing Bristol Channel.

RNLI lifeboat Helm Andy Stone wasn’t one of them – he was working out on the water near Birnbeck Pier in his boat Salty Sea Dog when the calls for help came in from the Coastguard and lifeboat launching authorities.

‘On the way up, I was thinking where this person might be, trying to picture the scene in my head,’ recalls Andy. ‘It can be difficult to spot someone in the water when there are waves. That day, luckily, there was only a little breeze and the sea was quite calm.

‘I found an upturned rowing dinghy a little beyond Sand Point, at Middle Hope Bay. I had a good look to make sure there wasn’t anyone attached to it, then gave the Coastguard the location. I do a lot of fishing in that area so I know the tides well. I figured because the dinghy was close to the shoreline, anybody drifting in the water would be too.'

‘An update then came through from the Coastguard; we were now searching for a person in the water with a boat – “a blue boat next to a brown boat”. I had an inkling it might be my fisherman friend Allan and his boat Star Trek,' says Andy. 'So I continued up to St Thomas’s Head and swung into the River Banwell where Allan’s boat was moored. As I made my way upriver, I saw him.’

‘Allan was clinging to the back of Star Trek, and he was visibly cold and tired,’ remembers Andy. ‘He looked very relieved to see a friendly face coming to help him.’

Allan’s fishing boat was tied to a mooring buoy in the river. He had fallen into the water centimetres from safety as he attempted to transfer from his boarding dinghy. It left him hanging onto the back of his fishing boat in freezing cold water, weighed down with a backpack and fighting the river current.

‘It doesn’t matter if you know the person you’re rescuing or not. You treat everybody the same,' says Andy. 'If you didn’t, it would impair your judgement. You just have to get there and make sure they’re safe – it’s the same with anyone.’

Allan being transferred to the RNLI's D class inshore lifeboat — Allan is transferred to the D class lifeboat

‘Allan passed his backpack to me and let go of his boat while I grabbed hold of him over the front of my boat. I moved him along the side of the boat by part lifting him and part pulling him around the bow.’

Andy calmly cut his engine and drifted over to the bank where he knew it was shallower and he could ‘begin to sort things out’.

‘The only way I could get him out of the water on my own was to use the back of the engine to help support his weight. I got him to put one foot on the engine gearbox – exactly as we do in RNLI capsize training for the D class lifeboat. That extra push from Allan’s leg helped me to get him safely onboard.'

Allan sits on the Atlantic 85 inshore lifeboat, wearing an orange plastic top to keep the rain off him, waiting to be airlifted — Allan waits to be airlifted

‘He was slurring his words. I wasn’t sure how long he’d been in the water but when he told me he’d been there for nearly 2 hours I knew I needed to get him to the lifeboat as soon as possible,' remembers Andy. 'I could hear the helicopter overhead and relayed this new information to the pilot. By now I was in radio contact with the D class so I arranged to meet the crew out in the bay, just around St Thomas’s Head.'

‘I don’t know how much longer Allan could have held on for, but I doubt it would have been that long. The fact that I was already afloat meant I reached him quicker, so it’s possible that helped him survive,' says Andy.

The crew of the D class lifeboat took Allan onboard and gave him casualty care – including an initial medical assessment, a warm hug in a survival blanket and the stimulus to keep talking and keep alert. The decision was made to evacuate him by air from the D class’s big sister lifeboat, the Atlantic 85.

After another transfer, the Atlantic 85 sped out into the bay to meet the Coastguard rescue helicopter, while the D class retrieved the upturned dinghy. A Coastguard paramedic and the lifeboat crew helped winch Allan up off the Atlantic for a quick flight to hospital, where he later made a full recovery.

Allan being airlifted to hospital — Allan is airlifted to hospital

Andy says: ‘Allan came down to the boathouse the following day, when his arms were still numb. He told me: “I am so grateful. I was thinking about the kids, my family and my body, and I was ready to let go.” I could detect a tear in his eye.’

Allan returns to thank the crew who saved him

‘I was praying someone would come’

Fisherman Allan Grant

‘I went out to check on my boat and collect something. A few weeks ago I’d lost my dinghy in a storm and had just replaced it with a smaller, lighter one as I suffer with arthritis in my arms. When I reached the fishing boat, I grabbed the side and stood up in the dinghy but the new one was so light, the back tipped, water rushed in, it flipped over and I was gone.

‘I just managed to get hold of the ladder of the fishing boat and put my foot on the propeller to take some of my weight, but I panicked, and I couldn’t pull myself up into the boat. I kept shouting for help, but there wasn’t anyone around. I just thought that no one was going to come. I was terrified.

‘I was in the water a long time, my fingers were white and my arms ached. I had to keep changing my arms over each time they got tired. When the sun came out I thought it might encourage people to come out too, and they’d find me – mentally it helped me to hang on.

‘I was praying help would come, then about 200–300 yards away I saw somebody. I shouted but they carried on walking. Then I saw them running, maybe to get a phone. A bit later I could make them out between a gap in the bushes and heard them say “someone's coming”.

‘When I first saw Andy on his boat I was so relieved. I’m so grateful to all the people who helped me and the passer-by that raised the alarm. Since being rescued I’ve ordered myself a lifejacket and my wife has bought me a waterproof phone holder. I won’t be going back out to my boat without them.’

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