Porthcawl and Barry Dock Lifeboats Respond to MAYDAY

Porthcawl’s Atlantic 85 lifeboat, Rose of the Shires, was launched and located the casualty yacht about 5 miles south west of Nash Point. Two volunteer crew members were put aboard with a salvage pump. They assessed the situation on board and managed to stem the ingress of water with the pump.

Upon the arrival of the larger Barry Dock lifeboat the Atlantic 85 transferred two crew members from Barry Dock lifeboat onto the casualty vessel before recovering their own two crew members. Porthcawl lifeboat then returned to station whilst the Barry Dock Lifeboat took the yacht under tow and back to Barry Dock for the skipper to carry out repairs.

Lifeboat Operations Manager at Porthcawl, Philip Missen, said, ‘The casualty yacht crew did the right thing by putting out the MAYDAY call as soon as they were aware of taking in water. This allowed us and Barry Dock lifeboat to located and manage the situation and avoid a possible sinking of the casualty vessel’.

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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 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 146,000 lives.

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