Port St Mary Lifeboat Station - ILB Callouts 30 March 1999

At12.40pm on Tuesday afternoon the Port St Mary Inshore Lifeboat (ILB) was called out to go to the assistance of a boat reported as in trouble in the vicinity of the Carrick, 1 mile east of Port St Mary Breakwater.

On arrival at the Carrick, the Inshore lifeboat crew found a 6.3 metre long rigid inflatable boat anchored with two men on board just to the north of the rock. A further two men were stuck on the Carrick light beacon itself.

The ILB went over to the boat to find it was swamped with water but the two men were otherwise safe. Then the ILB approached the beacon to take off the other two. The weather was fine and winds south westerly light; however as it was an hour and a half after high water and due to the recent gales at the weekend, there was a 4 to 6 foot breaking surf running over the rock. This made recovering the two stranded men awkward, taking several passes between waves. Eventually, each man jumped aboard the ILB. With 3 men on board their own boat and the other in the ILB; all none the worse for their ordeal, their boat was towed into Port St Mary.

The whole incident was safely concluded in under half an hour!

It subsequently transpired that the RIB belongs to the IoM Department of Highways, Ports and Properties. The alert came from the DHPP's Diving Supervisor on Port St Mary Breakwater who was concerned that the boat was overdue. The two men stuck on the beacon itself , were electricians who were working on the light. As lunchtime was approaching, the DHPP men had decided to have a break and the two men in the RIB had started haul in on a line which had been used to tether the boat to the beacon. This line snapped and before the engines could be started the boat was turned side to the surf and rolled over. The boat was washed away from the Carrick Beacon and the two crewmen thrown into the water. By the time the ILB had arrived, the two crewmen had managed to inflate a self righting air bag on their RIB, successfully right the boat and get themselves back on board. However, as both outboard engines had been immersed by the capsize and the batteries were flooded the boat had to be towed in.

(photo by Mick Kneale, taken after rehousing inshore lifeboat)

( copyright PSM RNLI )