Barrow lifeboat called after yacht goes aground
Barrow RNLI’s volunteer crew launched their inshore lifeboat this afternoon to investigate reports of a yacht aground in Morecambe Bay.
The request for assistance was received from HM Coastguard at 1.31pm today after the team at NCI Fleetwood (National Coastwatch Institution) reported observing that a yacht appeared to be aground between Barrow and Fleetwood. The Coastguard had been unable to contact the yacht by VHF radio.
The crew were paged and the inshore lifeboat, Raymond and Dorothy Billingham, was launched at 2.00pm with Saul Tomlin at the helm assisted by crew Nic Johnson and Liam Cooke. The lifeboat headed out along Walney Channel before turning to the southeast whereupon the crew soon located the yacht aground on Mort Bank. They established that there was one person on board the yacht who had mis-timed the tide for their passage from Piel Island to Fleetwood. Low water had just passed at 1.34pm.
With the yacht and crew member safe and awaiting the incoming tide to refloat their vessel the lifeboat crew passed the details over to the Coastguard who requested the casualty to inform them once he was refloated and back underway to Fleetwood.
The lifeboat returned to the Boathouse at Roa Island at 3.00pm where it was washed down and made ready for the next launch.
The weather and visibility at the time of the incident was good. The wind was southerly, Force 3. The next high tide was due at 7.31pm with a predicted height of 7.7m.
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The RNLI is the charity that 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 146,700 lives.
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