Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 24th November 2003.
Weather: SSW force 7, light rain / drizzle
At 16:50 UTC the crew responded to a call from Liverpool Coastguard on Monday to help the 30-metre scallop trawler Paramount,WD150, which had been fishing 22 miles south east of the village.The lifeboat was launched under the command of coxswain Michael Kneale and a crew of Michael Keggen, Mark Pendlebury, Morgan Guy, Mark Whiteley and David Kneen.
Lifeboat operations manager Alex Maddrell said: 'The Paramount is a large vessel of 30.6 metres, more than twice the size of the lifeboat and had severe steering problems as the rudder was jammed to port and control of the boat was impossible for the four fishermen aboard.'
They reached the trawler just after 18:00 UTC and secured a tow, but progress was slow with wind and spring tide causing additional problems. Wind and the big tides made the sea very rough. For the next 5 hours the tow proceeded slowly due to being beam on to the wind and tide; approximately 12.5 miles was covered.
Care had been exercised stay well clear of the tide race off Langness. After 23:00 the tide slowed down and then changed; with the ebb tide begining to flow, progress was more rapid despite the wind going against the tide and more than four knots was maintained towards safety.
At 01:10 UTC the entrance to Port St Mary harbour was reached, the coxswain and crew were put under further pressure by a number of large fishing boats sheltering from the bad weather and the problem of getting such a large boat lacking steerage alongside the quay safely.
The coxswain elected to tow the Paramount into the harbour, bow to bow which gave him greater manoeuvrability, but less pulling power. Mike was able to guide it close enough for other lifeboat crew who had assembled to assist the mooring and were on other boats could use heaving lines to secure the Paramount's ropes.
Port manager Captain Chris Burton assisted from the outset and remained until the service was over.
The lifeboat was back on her mooring and ready for service at 01:30 UTC
Edited 24-Nov -03