RNLI volunteers from Yarmouth and a coastguard helicopter last night (Saturday 15 May) rescued a solitary sailor, described as injured and severely unwell, from a stricken yacht.
A Mayday call from the vessel around 9pm led to H.M. Coastguard calling on the RNLI whose volunteers put out on Yarmouth's Severn class all weather lifeboat, Eric and Susan Hiscock (Wanderer).
Their mission, beginning at 9.11pm, was to a 42 foot yacht about 14 miles south of The Needles.
The boat was reported to have engine failure with the only crew member on board suffering from an injury.
Yarmouth RNLI’s volunteer crew headed west out of Yarmouth harbour where they met the SAR 175 helicopter.
At this point, a paramedic was winched onto the lifeboat in preparation to treat the casualty.
The RNLI said that, having arrived on scene, the all weather lifeboat deployed their much smaller ‘Y’ boat (carried on-board) in order to put two crew members and the paramedic on board the sailing yacht to assess the situation.
The sailor was disabled by severe seasickness, extreme cold and fatigue.
The volunteers transferred him, along with the paramedic, back to the lifeboat along with the paramedic.
The two lifeboat crew members remained on board the sailing yacht and prepared to sail it back to Yarmouth.
Working in the dark, with 20 knots of westerly wind and moderate to rough sea conditions, the decision was taken for Yarmouth RNLI to "make good speed" to bring the sick sailor to the safety of Yarmouth harbour by boat.
It was also decided to transfer the winchman to SAR 175 in the shelter of the Solent before recovering the broken down yacht.
The lifeboat arrived back in Yarmouth just before 1.00am.
The casualty was brought ashore before change of volunteer lifeboat crew too place.
Then, the all weather lifeboat made its way back south of the Isle of Wight to escort the stricken vessel.
As the conditions remained rough, it was safer for the boat to be sailed back rather than being taken under tow for the three and a half hour passage.
On arrival at the entrance to the harbour an alongside tow was established in order to safely moor the boat.
Yarmouth lifeboat returned to her berth and was ready for service at 4.45am.
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