Swanage’s all weather lifeboat was called away from a training exercise to help a yacht in trouble near Durlston Head.
The emergency call came at 5 pm on Wednesday 31st March 2021, when the 24’ yacht with two people aboard was disabled after suffering difficulties with the tide.
A passing vessel had been giving it a tow, but the towline snapped and the rope ended up round the boat’s propeller. As there was next to no wind, this left the yacht drifting in the water near Durlston Head.
Boat’s “engine was struggling”
As the Swanage Lifeboat made its way to the scene, the yacht successfully released the rope from the propeller and started to make its way across the bay.
When the rescue crew arrived, they decided to tow it to Poole to avoid the upcoming windy weather in Swanage.
A spokesperson for Swanage RNLI explained:
“The lifeboat crew were paged and soon on their way to the scene. In the meantime the yacht’s crew had managed to free the rope from their propellor and were making very slow progress across Durlston Bay.
“The lifeboat sat alongside them for a few minutes but it soon became apparent that the yacht’s engine was struggling against the tide so it was agreed to take the yacht in tow to Poole because of the NE wind forecast for Swanage Bay tomorrow.”
It took the lifeboat just over an hour to tow the yacht to Poole, whereupon they left its crew to take it for mooring.
After returning to Swanage, the lifeboat team carried out some of the planned exercises from before the callout.
