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A FISHING vessel has played a mercy role after a yacht hit trouble off the West Coast of Scotland.
Yesterday afternoon, a Mayday call was received by Stornoway coastguard from the skipper of yacht Dipper, reporting he had lost his rudder and was close inshore requiring immediate assistance.
The skipper of the yacht with two adults and two young children onboard had also fired two distress flares which were seen by people ashore who were able to report the situation via a 999 call to the coastguard. The wind was Force 6 at the time generating a two to four metre swell.
Stornoway Coastguard made a Mayday Relay Broadcast which was responded to by the fishing vessel Lauren who was five miles away and sailed to the scene. Lochinver RNLI lifeboat and the coastguard helicopter R100 from Stornoway was scrambled to the incident.
Once the Coastguard helicopter was on scene they carried out a hi-line transfer and evacuated the family from the yacht. Due to the poor weather conditions the lifeboat was unable to put a line on the yacht and returned to Lochinver. The Lauren was able to stay on scene until the weather abated and managed to tow the yacht to safety back to Gairloch.
David Smith, Watch Manager at Stornoway Coastguard said:
"Due to the skipper of the yacht being well equipped with life saving apparatus, he was able to attract attention to his situation using two different methods of alerting.
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