A Cumbrian yachtsman’s account of his Scottish cruise – and rescue by a lifeboat crew – has won an award.
Boyd Holmes, 74, of Hayton, near Carlisle, has won the Cruising Association’s Hanson Cup, after submitting a log of his cruise last year around the Outer Hebrides – which included an emergency lifeboat call-out.
The Hanson Cup is awarded annually to the most compelling account of a voyage received over the previous year from the association’s 6,400 members in the UK and overseas.
Boyd’s 12-day odyssey in the Western Isles began last July when he set sail from Ardfern on the West Coast of Scotland in his 45ft yacht Blue Damsel.
He and his three-strong crew had plotted a course around the islands of the 130 mile long archipelago.
Extremes of weather are also a feature of the Outer Hebrides – and on the final night moored off the Isle of Barra, this became dramatically apparent to the crew.
In the early hours, a Force Eight gale hit the area, dragging the anchored Blue Damsel onto the island’s rocks, leaving it high and dry as the tide receded.
A Mayday message to the Stornoway Coastguard sparked the launch of the Barra lifeboat which, after checking the crew’s safety, returned later the next day at high tide to tow the yacht free.
“It was definitely not the finale we had planned for what was otherwise a fantastic voyage in this amazing sea area,” said Boyd, former managing partner of Carlisle law firm Cartmell Shepherd.
“I thought it only fair to include this incident as well as the many highlights in my log, not least as a tribute to the prompt and professional response of the lifeboat crew.
“Sailing in Scottish open waters always carries risks as well as rewards, and our lifeboat teams deserve full credit for their bravery in setting out in all conditions to rescue those in distress.”
Boyd said his subsequent investigation of satellite surveys of the sea area showed that existing navigation charts gave incorrect advice on suitable places to drop anchor.
Logs were judged by acclaimed yachting author and journalist Dick Durham.
He said: “Boyd’s candid account of Blue Damsel’s grounding in the Western Isles is a masterclass in honesty and understanding of the realities of what can go wrong at sea.”
His account also won a top trophy from The Clyde Cruising Club, one of Scotland’s leading sailing organisations.
