A crew of volunteers from Donaghadee RNLI were called to assist a yacht in difficulty off the Co Down coast on Monday night.
At approximately 8.10pm on Monday evening, April 24, the crew were asked to launch the RNLI Trent class relief lifeboat Macquarie to go to the assistance of the yacht that was suffering from engine failure. The location was just off Burr Point near Ballyhalbert.
In a north westerly wind, with good visibility, albeit fading light, and a calm sea state the crew were able to make full speed to the last reported location of the yacht and be on-scene with them at 8.45pm.
Read more: Filming kicks off in Co Down for new series of BBC drama Hope Street
During the passage volunteer crew member David Cull was able to liaise by VHF with the skipper of the yacht and reassure him that the lifeboat was en route with their estimated time of arrival, and give advice on how to make the yacht ready to receive a towline.
Once on scene and in now faded light the crew members were able to quickly establish the towline with the crew members of the yacht and begin the tow back to Bangor Harbour.
At an average speed of 7.5 knots, the lifeboat with the casualty vessel arrived at Bangor Harbour roughly 2.5 hrs later where it was passed into the care of the Coastguard Rescue Team.
The lifeboat then proceeded to return to Donaghadee Harbour at full speed to be back on station and ready for their next call out by midnight.
Philip McNamara, Donaghadee Lifeboat Coxswain said: "The skipper of this yacht did absolutely the correct thing in asking for assistance as soon as he knew he had an issue, and had everything ready to make it easy for us to quickly establish the tow once alongside.
"The importance of having a means of communication and on this occasion a VHF, cannot be underestimated, this was a classic example of how well this works when things go unexpectedly wrong.
"As always, my thanks to the volunteers who dropped everything to attend the call out, a great crew to work with."
READ NEXT:
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
