OVERHEARD MAYDAY PROMPTS SOLO SAILOR RESCUE

A spoken word distress call overheard by crew on board an offshore installation and passed to Yarmouth Coastguard led to the rescue of a Dutch sailor earlier this evening.

At 4.42 pm, Yarmouth Coastguard were contacted by crew on board the offshore installation ‘Energy Enhancer’, who had heard a brief Mayday call from a man on board a yacht that was possibly on fire approximately 40 miles east of Cromer in Norfolk.  The standby vessel ‘Highland Champion’ was en route to investigate, and Yarmouth Coastguard also requested the launch of the Cromer RNLI Lifeboat and sent the Rescue Helicopter from RAF Wattisham to the scene.  The offshore patrol vessel, HMS Mersey, was also in the area and sent her fast rescue boat, which arrived on scene first and located the single handed sailor, who had abandoned his yacht for his liferaft. 

The rescue helicopter met up with HMS Mersey 35 miles out to sea and collected the sailor and brought him ashore.  The yacht subsequently burnt out and sank.

Peter Wheeler, Yarmouth Coastguard Watch Manager said:

“The sailor involved reacted very quickly to what was an incredibly dangerous and life-threatening situation, and was very fortunate that his cry for help was overheard and that there were vessels in the area able to assist so quickly.  If it had been necessary to launch a large scale search for the man we may well have had a different outcome.”

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