New Quay RNLI tasked to suspected fishing boat in distress
New Quay RNLI’s Mersey class all-weather lifeboat, the Frank & Lena Clifford of Stourbridge, was paged at 09.07 on Thursday 11 July by Milford Haven Coastguard after they picked up EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) signals from a commercial fishing vessel in the Llangrannog area.
The crew were then stood down as the Coastguard had spoken to the skipper of the vessel and confirmed that no assistance was required. However, after the beacon had been switched off and taken ashore, the Coastguard continued to receive distress signals in the area. Believing that a second EPIRB may have been activated, the Coastguard issued a mayday call.
Roger Couch, Lifeboat Operations Manager said, “The Coastguard wanted to confirm there was no other vessel in distress, so the lifeboat was paged at 09.32 to search the area.”
Daniel Potter, New Quay RNLI Coxswain said, “We soon found the fishing vessel in question and also spoke to other fishing vessels and members of the public in the area to check whether they had accidentally set off a distress beacon. We also used our direction finding equipment to get a fix on the distress signal.
“We then searched the area between Aberporth and New Quay, as directed by the Coastguard, but, after a two hour search, we found no other vessel in distress or persons in the water.”
Having concluded the search pattern, the lifeboat was stood down by Milford Haven Coastguard and returned to station at 12:00.
Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons are GPS satellite enabled safety devices registered to and carried by a vessel. EPIRBs are designed to alert search and rescue services and allow them to quickly locate seagoing vessels in an event of an emergency. They activate automatically when they hit the water or you can push a button to set it off in an emergency. The signal from the beacon informs the Coastguard where you are and who you are. You can also purchase PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons) for personal use when taking part in recreational water sports.
Notes to editors
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For more information contact Kate Williams, New Quay Lifeboat Press Officer at [email protected] or 07786 550054. Alternatively contact Eleri Roberts, RNLI Media Officer on 01745 585162 / 07771 941390.
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