Lowestoft RNLI lifeboat is called to yacht suffering electrical failure
A late night call for help to the UK Coastguard saw Lowestoft RNLI lifeboat launched in the light of the approaching "super moon" to go to the aid of the crew of a small yacht that had lost all electrical power north-east of Lowestoft.
Lowestoft lifeboat Deputy Second Coxswain, Nigel Lyman, said: 'We
were called at 11.30pm last night (13 November 2016) to go to the aid of a 10m yacht called Invisible
Touch that had suffered electrical failure.
Although they still had engine power they had lost their navigation lights together with their VHF radio communications. Fortunately they were in range of a mobile phone signal and used that to summon help.
When we reached the two-man crew on the vessel, which was five miles off Lowestoft close to the Holm Sands East Cardinal Buoy, we put one of our volunteer crew with a hand-held radio onto the yacht to provide communications.
We escorted the vessel back to the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Basin in Lowestoft arriving there at 2.45am. The yachtsmen told us that they had left Scarborough at 2am on Sunday morning – so it had been a long and exhausting trip down the east coast for them before they lost the electrics and they were very grateful to be safely tied up in port.'
RNLI media contacts- Mick Howes, Lowestoft RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer, on 07814 468917, email mickhowes@hotmail.com
- Tim Ash, RNLI Public Relations Manager (London/East/South East) on 0207 6207426, 07785 296252 tim_ash@rnli.org.uk
- For enquiries outside normal business hours, contact the RNLI duty press officer on 01202 336789
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The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates over 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives.
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