Barrow lifeboat assists yacht in Walney Channel

The tasking request was received from HM Coastguard in Holyhead at 11.23pm. The information received was that a lone yachtsman on board a 6-metre (20-foot) vessel had become disorientated upon entering the Walney Channel at Haws Point.

The crew was paged and the inshore lifeboat, Raymond and Dorothy Billingham, was launched at 11.41pm with Jonny Long at the helm along with a crew of three.

The lifeboat located the casualty to the east of Piel Island, only a short distance from the lifeboat station. The crew carried out an assessment of the situation and determined that the safest course of action was to take the yacht under tow in order to avoid it becoming a hazard within the Channel. One of the lifeboat crew was transferred to the yacht to secure the tow and assist in dropping the yacht’s sails. The vessel was towed back to Roa Island where it was secured to a suitable mooring and made safe.

The lifeboat returned to the Boathouse at 0.20am where it was re-housed by the waiting shore crew and made ready for the next launch.

The weather at the time of the incident was good and the wind was easterly, Force 4. The next high tide was due at 2.49am with a predicted height of 8.9m.

RNLI Media Contacts

For further information, please contact:

Chris Clouter, Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer for RNLI Barrow, [email protected]

Claire Fitzpatrick-Smith, RNLI Regional Communications Manager for Wales, West of England and Isle of Man, 07977 728 315, [email protected]

Danielle Rush, RNLI Regional Communications Lead for Wales, West of England and Isle of Man, 07786 668829, [email protected]

RNLI Press Office, 01202 336789, [email protected]

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