Porthcawl RNLI’s volunteer crew were paged by HM Coastguard following a Mayday call from a yacht off Porthcawl.

The crew were requested to launch to assist a 35ft yacht with two people onboard which was taking in water and in difficulty half a mile south of Tusker Rock off Porthcawl.

The charity’s Atlantic 85 lifeboat Rose of the Shires was launched on service with a salvage pump onboard and made best speed to the yacht’s location. Two crew went onboard the yacht and established that the exhaust manifold had snapped and was causing the water ingress.

Initially the yacht continued under sail back towards Swansea which was the nearest safe harbour at the current state of tide and was escorted by the Atlantic 85 lifeboat. The RNLI crew onboard the yacht managed to keep water ingress under control.

With progress towards Swansea slow and the tide due to turn soon the helm of the Atlantic 85 lifeboat decided that the best way to assist the yacht and its crew further was to take it under tow and requested The Mumbles Lifeboat RNLI Tamar lifeboat was launched to bring a bigger salvage pump and take over the tow.

The Mumbles lifeboat took over the tow around 12.45pm and the yacht was towed to the nearest safe harbour at Swansea Marina.

Porthcawl’s Atlantic 85 returned to station where it was washed down, refuelled and made ready for service.

To support Porthcawl RNLI’s volunteer crew and help power us to our next rescue: https://fundraise.rnli.org/fundraisers/Porthcawl