Report of a damaged Whaler

Launch No: 204
Craft: Spirit of the Dart. D-702
Monday, 24 March 2014
Location: Stumpy Steps. Dartmouth Castle. Dartmouth harbour
ILB with Picket boat from BRNC
Photo: Andy Kyle
ILB with Picket boat from BRNC

A whaler from BRNC on a training exercise arrived at Stumpy Steps. It went alongside but as it reversed out a wave picked up the vessel and deposited it on nearby rocks holing the vessel. The occupants, believed to be four cadets were able to get ashore onto the steps. The incident was witnessed by a lifeboat crewman working at a house 400 metres away, above Lighthouse Beach. He did not know if there was anyone in the water as the visibility was poor in the rain. He informed Rob Clements, the Lifeboat Operations Manager, who ordered a self launch. Unknown to him the whaler crew had contacted a Royal Navy picket boat which made its way to the scene, together with a Navy RIB, both arriving a few seconds ahead of the lifeboat. The Navy vessels took the whaler back to Sandquay.

Time

Request Received 2:46pm
Time at incident Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 0.15 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 9 minutes
Time to recovery Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 0.4 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 24 minutes
Back on Service 3:20pm

Conditions

Sea/River State River Choppy
Wind Direction South
Wind Strength 22-27 knots

Lifeboat Crew

Chris Tracey (Helm)
Jamie Mathys
Kevin Murphy

Shore Crew

Pete Callis (Tractor Driver)
Simon Amphlett

Deputy Launch Authority

Station address

RNLI Dart Lifeboat Station
Coronation Park
North Embankment
Dartmouth
Devon TQ6 9RR

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