A fishing vessel south of Hornsea has been towed to safety by local lifeboats.
The 23-metre vessel had suffered a loss of power and was unable to deploy its anchor, leaving it at risk of drifting towards the shoreline or nearby shipping lanes. It was also drifting dangerously close to the wind farms.
Bridlington RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat Antony Patrick Jones was paged at 5.56pm and launched at 6.39pm on Saturday 22nd August after discussions between HM Coastguard, the Launch Authority and the Duty Coxswain. The Humber RNLI, Pride of the Humber all-weather boat was already on scene with the casualty vessel, having earlier taken it under tow to move it into safer waters.
Upon arrival, the volunteer crew of the Bridlington lifeboat worked alongside the Humber RNLI all-weather lifeboat to assess the situation while a commercial tow was being arranged. Conditions on scene were calm, and after discussions between HM Coastguard, the vessel’s representatives and both RNLI coxswains, a plan was agreed to provide the casualty vessel with a temporary anchor.
A member of the volunteer lifeboat crew was transferred to the fishing vessel to assess the anchoring issue and speak directly with the vessel’s captain. Using a fisherman’s anchor carried aboard the assisting lifeboat, the two volunteer RNLI crews successfully rigged and deployed a temporary anchor, allowing the casualty vessel to remain safely at anchor while awaiting a commercial tow.
The anchor was deployed shortly after 8.30pm, and both RNLI lifeboats remained on scene to ensure it was holding securely. Confirmation was received that the anchor was holding, enabling the casualty vessel to remain safely in position.
Once HM Coastguard was satisfied with the arrangements and no further assistance was required, Bridlington RNLI’s all-weather lifeboat was stood down at 9.38pm and returned to station at 10.41pm. The lifeboat was subsequently refuelled and made ready for service. Humber RNLI also returned to base at Grimsby docks after the tasking which had seen the volunteer crew on the tasking for over 15 hours.
Bridlington RNLI Coxswain Andy Rodgers said:
“This was a great example of the close cooperation and working between both RNLI Humber & Bridlington crews and HM Coastguard to keep a casualty vessel safe. The fishing vessel had lost power and was unable to deploy its own anchor, so the RNLI’s priority was to prevent it drifting into danger while arrangements were made for a commercial tow to be arranged. By working together, we were able to safely anchor the vessel and remain on scene until we were confident the situation was stable. Thank you to all the personnel who were involved in this service call another professional response.”
