Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - Callouts: 27th May 2001

Weather: thick fog; wind: Calm. High water 14:45 BST Spring tides

At 15:03 BST Liverpool Coastguard alerted the crew for the all weather lifeboat by pagers. 5 minutes later the station D class lifeboat "Francis" was launched and the relief Trent lifeboat "Inner Wheel II", 14-29, left her moorings to go to the aid of the yacht "Shandy" with a crew of two.

The 20 foot long yacht "Shandy" from Castletown had put out of harbour two hours earlier to do some fishing in Castletown Bay. There was no wind and thick fog; visability was no more than 200 yards. The crew of the yacht were using a small outboard engine and a GPS in order to know where they were.

However, their outboard engine failed and attempts to start a backup outboard engine also failed. They put down their anchor to prevent being taken by the tide out of the Bay towards the Calf of Man, 5 miles away. Then they contacted Liverpool Coastguard by dialing 999 on a mobile phone. After the Coastguards contacted them by VHF radio to confirm their description and to check that the yacht also had radio communications, the Lifeboats were called out.

The Inshore lifeboat located the yacht at anchor, in 15m of water, some 200m SSW of the Stack at Scarlett Point and reported the position to the all weather lifeboat 14-29, "Inner Wheel II", which arrived a couple of minutes later.

A crewman from the inshore lifeboat went aboard the "Shandy" to help haul their anchor and arrange the securing of a tow line from 14-29, "Inner Wheel II".

The yacht was towed to the entrance of Castletown harbour and the ILB was then used to manouvre the yacht to its berth further up the harbour, getting alongside just before 16:00 BST.

After a short stop alongside at Castletown both lifeboats returned to Port St Mary being back on station and ready for service at 16:40 BST.

ILB stands off yacht Shandy whilst its in tow of relief Trent, "Inner Wheel II" (copyright PSM Lifeboat)	ILB and crew of ALB returning from service Sunday 27th May 2001 (copyright Alex Maddrell , Hon Sec.)

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Edited 27-may-01