Yacht Folksong south of Scarlett Point (photograph
copyright of PSM lifeboat)
Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 22nd June 2002.
Weather:Overcast, frequent rain showers; visibility moderate locally poor in rain Wind: SSW force 5, occasionally 6 ahead of rain showers
15:55 BST. 'Gough Ritchie II' had just returned from conducting a regular crew training exercise when details of a small yacht in difficulties started to come through Liverpool Coastguard. The crew had just landed the boarding boat ashore when another member of the crew who works in the local yacht club came to the slipway to inform that the folkboat 'folksong', some where to the south of the Island had issued a Pan pan radio message to say they were in danger of dismasting and one of the two crew was incapacitated with serve seasickness. Once a position was given by the yacht to the Coastguards to pass on to the lifeboat crew, the lifeboat was slipped from her moorings five minutes later to go to a position 53 deg. 54 min. North, 004 deg. 33 min. West; approx. 10.5 miles to the SSE of Port St Mary.
The lifeboat arrived alongside the 25 foot long yacht at 16:35 BST. The mast was still upright. The fit crew member was at the tiller of the yacht and was making head way under engine power towards Port St Mary at a speed of 2 knots. The yachtsman informed the lifeboat crew that the outer starboard mast stay had begun to part from the deck fitting. The inner stay was still intact. He had managed to get all sail down by himself whilst the seasick crewman had had to go below deck. The yachtsman was concerned that the yacht only had a small auxiliary engine and whilst it was functioning well at present he did not know whether it would continue and whether it would have sufficient power to make head way against the tide which at just turned and was running towards the north east. It was agreed that the lifeboat would escort the yacht towards Port St Mary rather than take it in tow. The best strong point for towing a yacht is to attach the towline to the base of the mast but in this case this was not possible as it might have risked dismasting it. With the yacht only making three knots the lifeboat had to circle around or zigzag behind the yacht as the slowest speed the lifeboat can do is just under five knots unless one engine is shut down.
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Yacht Folksong south of Scarlett Point (photograph
copyright of PSM lifeboat)
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The yachts engine held out and the journey back to Port St Mary took just over three hours. A moderate sea meant that the yachtsmen had a rolling and uncomfortable passage for the first two hours. Then the wind eased to force 4, the weather improved, the yacht had got inside the main tide stream south off Langness Point and the sea state eased.
Both vessel arrived safely at Port St Mary at 19:45 BST.
Edited 23-June -02