After a busy August with 15 callouts for the Swanage Lifeboat Station, the first day of September brought no respite, as the crew were paged to rescue a yacht that had got entangled in a lobster pot marker and was consequently stuck fast to the sea bed.
The 12 metre yacht with two people on board was 4.5 nautical miles southwest of St Albans Head, when it had to radio for help.
As the tide was rising, the yacht would soon be under considerable strain, while it remained anchored to the buoy. With either the rudder or prop shaft probably caught, any damage to either of these could lead to a significant water leak.
“Skipper was right to be concerned with the situation”
Swanage Lifeboat Station reported:
“With the tide building, the skipper was right to be concerned with the situation. Although the sea was calm, the tide was going to start putting a significant strain on whatever was caught on the pot buoy.”
Just after 10.30 am on Tuesday 1st September 2020, the Swanage all-weather lifeboat launched and was on the scene 22 minutes later.
“After 4 or 5 attempts the buoy line was finally caught”
After a quick assessment the lifeboat crew decided that they would try and grab the buoy line and cut it. Swanage Lifeboat crew said:
“After 4 or 5 attempts the buoy line was finally caught, pulled to the surface and cut. The yacht was now drifting free and all that remained was for the yacht’s skipper to check that the steering and propulsion were working correctly and that there was no water ingress. This was done and all seemed to be well.”
Set course for Yarmouth
This left the yacht able to continue on its voyage and it set course for Yarmouth. Just to be on the safe side, the lifeboat escorted it for 10 minutes to ensure that all was well.
As the yacht’s skipper was happy that everything was fine, the lifeboat was then released to return to Swanage.
