Barrow Lifeboat Station’s volunteer crew launched their all-weather lifeboat twice this afternoon to go to the aid of a motorsailer which had broken down whilst on passage to Fleetwood from Whitehaven.
The call to provide assistance came from the HM Coastguard base in Holyhead at 2:14 pm this afternoon. The information received was that the 12-metre Colvic Watson motorsailer ‘Quest’, with two people on board, had broken down approximately 5 miles west of Haverigg.
The crew was paged and the all-weather lifeboat, ‘Grace Dixon’, was launched at 2:30pm under the command of Coxswain, Shaun Charnley, assisted by five crew.
The lifeboat had reached Piel Buoy when it was stood down by HM Coastguard as the crew of the ‘Quest’ had managed to rig a sail and believed they would be able to proceed slowly to safety. The lifeboat therefore returned to the boathouse and was re-housed. However, two hours later and with the ‘Quest’ having made little progress, HM Coastguard requested the lifeboat to launch for a second time. The crew was paged again, and the lifeboat launched at 4:30pm.
The ‘Grace Dixon’ made good time on the passage to the casualty and was alongside the stricken boat at 5:15pm. It proceeded to take the ‘Quest’ under tow back to Barrow where it was placed on a mooring at Roa Island.
With the casualty vessel and crew safe, the lifeboat returned to the boathouse at 8:15pm where it was washed down and made ready for the next launch.
The weather at the time of the incident was overcast with showers. The wind was from the south-west, Force 3 – 4, and the high tide was due at 10-16 pm with a height of 7.8 metres.
