Ramsey’s Mersey class RNLI lifeboat, the RNLB Ann and James Ritchie, was launched last Sunday afternoon (9th September) to go to the aid of a yacht, with two people on board, that was stranded on rocks around half a mile north of Cornaa Beach. The 20 foot Castletown registered vessel was on passage from Port St Mary to Ramsey. It had lost both its rudder and engine in difficult sea conditions with squally and strong gusting winds. Unable to make the safety of the nearby beach, it had ended up on the rocks.
Ramsey all-weather lifeboat, with her volunteer crew and coxswain Mark Kenyon at the helm, was launched at around 2.00 pm and made her way rapidly to the casualty in a moderate to locally rough sea.
At the scene it was observed that the incapacitated yacht was not only stranded hard on the rocks but had sustained a hole in the hull making it unfeasible to take the vessel into tow. The two people on board although severely shocked by their ordeal were unhurt and had safely evacuated from their yacht to the rocks but were prevented from leaving the vicinity by nearby rocks and cliffs.
With the lifeboat standing close by, the lifeboat’s X-boat (inflatable dinghy), together with two volunteer lifeboat crew, was deployed with the intention of transferring the yacht’s two crew members from the rocks to the lifeboat. Whilst this procedure was taking place a large wave flipped the X-boat over, flinging everyone into the cockpit of the casualty vessel.
After ascertaining that all were safe and unhurt, the lifeboat coxswain instructed the crew remaining on the lifeboat to recover and right the X-boat. By means of a heaving line and with a tow rope attached it was returned to the casualty vessel. The second transfer was successful and, albeit with considerable effort in the heavy sea, all four persons were conveyed to the waiting lifeboat which then made all haste back to Ramsey where the crew of the stricken yacht were handed safely into the care of the local coastguard.
However the day did not end there for Ramsey lifeboat and her volunteer crew! Having just re-carriaged she was immediately re-launched, at the request of Liverpool Coastguard after a 999 call from a concerned member of the public, to go to the assistance of a windsurfer in difficulty about half a mile offshore in north Ramsey Bay. The tired but otherwise unharmed windsurfer and his craft were taken onboard the lifeboat and then dropped off in the lee of the north breakwater, in the vicinity of the former Talk of the Town site. Ramsey RNLI lifeboat finally returned to station and her crew was stood down.
