FISHERMAN RESCUED AFTER BOAT SINKS OFF THE ISLE OF WIGHT


A fisherman has been rescued after his boat sank 10 miles south west of the Isle of Wight.

Solent Coastguard received a mayday call from the vessel just before 10.40 this morning, reporting that he was taking on water.

The Needles Coastguard Rescue Team was sent to a vantage point while the RNLI Yarmouth lifeboat and the Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Lee-on-Solent were sent to the scene. Solent Coastguard also issued a Mayday Relay broadcast to other vessels in the area able to offer assistance.
  
The fisherman went into the water, but was wearing a lifejacket and had a handheld radio and distress flares with him. He set off one of the flares, and was located and winched on board by the Coastguard helicopter. He was then flown to St. Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight.

Alan Waters, Duty Watch Manager at Solent Coastguard, said:

"This fisherman was wearing a lifejacket, which no doubt aided his survival. He also took distress flares and a handheld radio into the water with him which enabled rescue units to find him quickly.

"We always recommend fisherman wear a personal flotation device whilst working on the deck of a vessel at sea. It’s also useful to have an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) or a Personal Locator Beacon ( PLB) with you, which can send an accurate position of where you are to the Coastguard.”

EPIRBs should be registered with their country of origin, as this enables search and rescue authorities to have all the details they need in the event of emergency.

Details on how to register an EPIRB can be found on our website: http://www.dft.gov.uk/mca/mcga07-home/emergencyresponse/mcga-searchandrescue/epirb.htm

Popular posts from this blog

Label your kit at the coast

Image
Kayaks. Canoes. Paddleboards. What do they all have in common? They’re quite often found on the coastline or drifting out to sea. And if we don’t know who they belong to, we can spend time searching for an owner when they’re home safe and sound. So please help us to help you. Label your kit so that if you do get separated from it, and it turns up somewhere, we can get hold of you. In recent weeks, our Coastguard Rescue Teams have found numerous items such as kayaks and canoes drifting out at sea or abandoned near the shoreline. Unfortunately, some of the items we have found have not had their owners’ contact details written on them nor been reported as missing to the Coastguard. As a result, it makes it difficult for us to find out who it belongs to and also means we can never be completely sure if someone is safe or in the worst case, in trouble at sea. This can place a huge strain on our resources especially during the busy summer period when we have to call upon our Coastgua
Read more

A short history of HM Coastguard

Image
Today HM Coastguard is a world leader in maritime search and rescue. Looking back almost 200 years, the goods, which now travel by road, were carried by hundreds of small ships. Year in year out dozens of ships and hundreds of lives were lost within sight of the coast. Public shock and dismay at the tragedies drove forward the creation of national life saving organisations. Though it’s beginnings lie in those decades HM Coastguard originated not to meet the dangers of the seas but to combat a threat to the country’s economy and security – smuggling. As soon as medieval taxes were charged on imports and exports, people began smuggling. By 1743 th e estimate was that half the tea drunk in Britain was illegally imported and shows that smuggling was highly profitable. Smugglers have often been romanticised but the reality was brutal. Local people lived in fear, with violent reprisals on informers and the murder of revenue officers, while corruption enabled smugglers to evade harsh p
Read more

BOSCASTLE FLOODS: TEN YEARS ON

Image
Boscastle Flooding 16 th August 2004 The storms of Monday 16 August 2004 saw three weeks worth of rain fall in one day. The resulting water began to be funnelled down the valleys surrounding Boscastle and soon the steep roads became rivers. By the time that the water reached the picturesque village, it had picked up enough momentum to become a raging torrent, sweeping into buildings, washing cars away and felling huge trees. Graham King runs the Witches Museum in Boscastle and was also the station officer for the Boscastle Coastguard Rescue Team at the time of the floods: “ My museum is situated next to the harbour near the river ,” says Graham “ and I can see the coastguard equipment store from there. Initially I was concerned that the vehicle and equipment were going to become stranded but I soon began to realise how quickly the situation was deteriorating and called Falmouth Coastguard ” From that point on the villagers and tourists stranded in flood waters were he
Read more