Porthcawl RNLI’s volunteer crew were paged by HM Coastguard following a 999 call from a lone sailor who was onboard a yacht in difficulty near Scarweather Sands. The yacht had run aground on a sandbank and swamped its engine.
The charity’s inshore lifeboat, Atlantic 85 Rose of the Shires was launched on service and made best speed to the location. The Mumbles Lifeboat Roy Barker IV was also requested to launch.
The lifeboat passaged out in fairly challenging conditions and as they got closer to Scarweather sand bank, the volunteer crew were unable to immediately spot the casualty and due to the conditions were struggling to locate them using radar. With the casualty unable to use their VHF radio at the time, the sailor was requested to fire a red flare, after which the lifeboat crew spotted the vessel.

On scene, the crew assessed the situation and observed that the yacht had taken on a significant amount of water. A decision was made that the safest course of action was to put a crew member onboard the yacht to further assess the situation. It was immediately apparent that the crew needed to get the sailor off as quickly as possible as it would be impossible to stem the flow of water.

The casualty was safely transferred on to the lifeboat before the vessel sank. Due to the challenging sea conditions at the time, the casualty was then transferred to the The Mumbles all-weather lifeboat and taken safely ashore at Swansea.

To help power Porthcawl RNLI volunteers to our next rescue: https://fundraise.rnli.org/fundraisers/Porthcawl
In a coastal emergency dial 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard.