Family rescued from stricken yacht 21/7/10
At quarter past twelve this afternoon, a Mayday call was received by Stornoway Coastguard from the skipper of the yacht Dipper reporting he had lost his rudder and was close inshore requiring immediate assistance.
The skipper of the yacht with two adults and two young children onboard had also fired two distress flares which were seen by people ashore who were able to report the situation via a 999 call to the Coastguard. The wind was Force 6 at the time generating a two to four metre swell.
Stornoway Coastguard made a Mayday Relay Broadcast which was responded to by the fishing vessel Lauren who was five miles away and proceeded to the scene.
Lochinver RNLI lifeboat and the Coastguard helicopter R100 from Stornoway was scrambled to the incident.
Once the Coastguard helicopter was on scene they carried out a hi-
The Lauren was able to stay on scene until the weather abated and managed to tow the yacht to safety back to Gairloch.
The family upon arriving back at the helicopter base made a visit to the Stornoway Coastguard Coordination Centre where they were given a cup of tea, met the operations team and given advice by the Coastguard with reference to the small yacht and boat safety scheme (CG66).
David Smith, Watch Manager at Stornoway Coastguard said:
"Due to the skipper of the yacht being well equipped with life saving apparatus, he was able to attract attention to his situation using two different methods of alerting.
The MCA operates a free service through our “CG66” Safety Identification Scheme. The information you provide us about your vessel is held on our national database and is used in safety and Search and Rescue situations only.
To register your vessel, please go to the MCA Website at www.mcga.gov.ukand follow the links to the CG66 page. It will help the Coastguard to help you."