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Swanage all-weather lifeboat tows small yacht to safety

Lifeboats News Release

A yacht with two persons on board suffered a sequence of failures, leaving them with no engine or electrical power 2nm south of St Albans Head.

Swanage lifeboat crew

RNLI/Roydon Woodford

Swanage lifeboat crew
The crew of the yacht managed to contact the UK Coastguard via a hand-held VHF radio and explained their situation. They had suffered an engine failure, then their auxiliary outboard engine mounting had failed. With a building tide against them and now no electrical power either they decided to call for help.

Swanage's all-weather lifeboat, the Shannon class 'George Thomas Lacy', launched to their position a short while later and used RADAR and VHF direction finding to find the yacht amongst the 'DZ' buoys off the headland.

The lifeboat was alongside the yacht less than 30 minutes after launching.

Two volunteer crew were placed on board to rig a tow and good speed was made back to Swanage Bay, where the yacht was secured for the night.

The yacht's two crew had made arrangements to be picked up and taken home, so were brought ashore on the lifeboat.

The lifeboat was rehoused just before 12.30am, where it was washed down and made ready for to launch again when required.

ALB Crew: (Coxn) Dave Turnbull, Robert Aggas, Steve Williams, Phil Palmer, Felix Williams, Neil Brooks
Shore Crew: (Head Launcher) Luke Kill, (Winchman) Gary Buglass, Emily Condie, Nigel Bower, Ben Bamber

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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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