Barrow RNLI lifeboat Called to Assist Yacht
The RNLI’s volunteer crew from Barrow Lifeboat Station launched their all-weather lifeboat on Thursday morning to assist in attempts to recover a yacht which had run aground.
The request for assistance was received from HM Coastguard at 5.42am. The information given was that a yacht with two people on board and on passage from the Isle of man, had run aground off Hodbarrow Point near Haverigg.
The crew was paged and the inshore lifeboat, Grace Dixon, was launched at 6.20am under the command of Coxswain, Shaun Charnley, together with a crew of six. HM Coastguard requested the Barrow lifeboat to go to the scene and stand off in deeper water whilst the Haverigg Inshore Rescue boat attempted to re-float the yacht on the rising tide. There were concerns that the casualty vessel might get into difficulty once re-floated in the deteriorating weather.
The lifeboat proceeded at full speed along the west side of Walney Island and reached the mouth of the Duddon Estuary at 7.10am where it was instructed to stand by. However, the yacht was unable to be re-floated on the high tide and consequently, the lifeboat was stood down at 8.20am.
As the Grace Dixon was making its way back to Barrow, it was tasked again by the Coastguard to investigate an EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Beacon) alarm from a Crew Transfer Vessel berthed at the Lead-in Jetty, north of Ramsden Dock Entrance in Walney Channel. Furness Coastguard also attended the incident and soon established that the EPIRB unit had been activated accidentally.
With nobody on board the CTV in any danger, the lifeboat returned to the Boathouse at Roa Island where it arrived at 9.45am.
The weather at the time of the incident was overcast with heavy rain, and offshore there was a 3-metre swell. The wind was south, south-westerly, Force 5-6. The high tide at Barrow was at 7.51am with a predicted height of 6.8 metres.
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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 142,700 lives.
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