[T]he volunteer crew from the RNLI’s Barrow station launched both their lifeboats this afternoon, Sunday 4 June 2017, to assist a vessel which had broken down whilst on passage to Barrow from the Isle of Man.
The request to launch the Lifeboat came from HM Coastguard at Holyhead at 12:54pm.
The information received was that a 26’ motor vessel with three people on board, had suffered engine failure approximately 25 miles north west of the Barrow lifeboat station.
The lifeboat crew was paged and the all-weather lifeboat, Grace Dixon, was launched at 1:25pm under the command of Coxswain, Shaun Charnley, with crew members Jonny Long, Dave Kell, Ben Jackson, Mark Harper, Alan Cleasby and Adam Cleasby, on board.
The lifeboat proceeded to the scene and was alongside the casualty vessel at 2:35pm where an assessment of the situation was made. The crew established that it was likely that there was a fuel problem with the stricken vessel and that this could not be resolved at sea. Consequently, it was decided to take the vessel under tow and a line from the Grace Dixon was attached and the tow commenced at slow speed.
It was estimated that it would take just over two hours to tow the vessel back to Barrow and it was requested that the Inshore lifeboat be launched to take over the tow once it was just off Roa Island. The Inshore lifeboat, Vision of Tamworth, was launched with Paul Wilcock, John Walker and Sam Davis on board, and the tow was handed over at 6:25pm. The Vision of Tamworth then proceeded to tow the casualty vessel to the Ferry pitching, north of Jubilee Bridge, where it was landed safely at 6:56pm.
The Grace Dixon was back on station at 6:55pm, and the Vision of Tamworth followed at 7:15pm. Both lifeboats were then made ready for their next launch.
The next high tide was due at 9:07pm with a predicted height of 7.7 metres.
