Father and Son Lifeboat Crew Launch on Rescue Mission.
Porthcawl RNLI volunteers were paged at lunchtime on Sunday 26 May following the report of a yacht in difficulty approximately two and half miles off Porthcawl. The twenty three feet sailing boat with three persons on board had suffered engine problems.
With force six winds and up to two metre swells out in the Bristol Channel the casualty was unable to reach Porthcawl marina under its own power. The RNLI crew’s first challenge was to locate the casualty in very misty conditions. Crew member Chris Page said, ‘We were given an approximate location of the yacht but with visibility down to less than one mile we tried tracking them by radar but this proved ineffective. Fortunately the location given by the casualty crew was close to our initial search area’.
Once alongside the casualty one crewman was put aboard the yacht and made sure that all three on board were well. A tow line was set up and Porthcawl’s Atlantic 85, ‘Rose of the Shires’ made steady progress back to Porthcawl where the casuality yacht was moored securely inside the marina.
Senior helmsman at Porthcawl, Carl Evans was accompanied on the rescue by his son Lewis Evans. Carl said, ‘This was a special day for me, our crew completed a successful rescue in very poor sea conditions, my youngest son Lewis was one of the crew onboard and it was thirty years to the day that I applied to join the crew at Porthcawl’.
Key facts about the RNLI
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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Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries
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