On their way to rescue the crew of a 28 foot yacht that had run aground in Studland Bay, Swanage Lifeboat Station received a Mayday call from the skipper of another nearby yacht, who had had a nasty accident.
The man had caught and severed one of his fingers in one of the yacht’s sail winches and required urgent help.
Both the lifeboats were launched at 4 pm on Monday 3rd August 2020.
The inshore lifeboat was first on the scene
The inshore lifeboat (ILB) was first on the scene and quickly checked on the crew of the grounded yacht and then continued on to the yacht with the injured skipper.
Casualty care trained crew members were put aboard and started to assess and treat the man. The all-weather lifeboat (ALB) carries entonox pain relieving gas on board and when it arrived, the gas was able to help relieve the understandable pain.
The injured man was taken to Poole Harbour entrance, where he was then transferred to an ambulance
“The skipper’s injury was bandaged and immobilised”
The Swanage Lifeboat crew reported:
“The skipper’s injury was bandaged and immobilised and with some pain relief, he, his wife and four children were transferred to the ALB to be taken ashore at the entrance to Poole Harbour.
“The casualty was kept comfortable until an ambulance became available. He was then handed in to the care of the ambulance paramedic.”
Eventually the grounded yacht was freed
Meanwhile the crew of two adults and two children of the grounded yacht had been safely transferred onto the ALB, but their yacht was still stuck. In order to resolve the incident, the skipper was taken by the ILB back to his yacht to wait for the tide to start to rise so the boat could be carefully pulled into deeper water. Eventually the grounded yacht was freed, so the three other crew members were returned to their yacht.
With everyone now safe, the last thing to do was to collect the yacht belonging to the skipper who had injured his finger, so it was towed back to the safety of the RNLI mooring in Swanage Bay.
Both lifeboats were then finally able to be rehoused, washed down, sanitised, restocked, refueled and made ready for the next call.
