Swimmer swept out to sea from Slapton Sands

Launch No: 477
Craft: Norma Ethel Vinall. B-825
Sunday, 8 August 2021
Location: Slapton Sands. Start Bay
Photo: John Fenton Dart RNLI Lifeboat Press officer
Paramedic from Coastguard helicopter assesses the swimmer

A male swimmer was caught in a rip current off Blackpool Sands and was struggling for some time to return to shore. He was rescued by two in a small dory. In view of his condition the Coastguard was called and the Coastguard Rescue team from Prawle Point, the Coastguard helicopter and the Dart RNLI inshore lifeboat were all tasked to attend. The helicopter landed on Slapton Sands to the North east of the war memorial carpark and a para-medic from the helicopter attended the casualty. The casualty was well enough to walk to the helicopter before being transferred to hospital. The casualty was ashore before the lifeboat had arrived and the Coastguard team asked two of the crew to help control traffic flow past the incident.

Time

Request Received 3:31pm
Time at incident Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 0.5833333333333334 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 35 minutes
Time to recovery Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 1.15 to int loses precision in /home/dartlifeboatorg/public_html/launches-detail.php (line 272) 1 hour, 9 minutes
Back on Service 4:40pm

Conditions

Sea/River State Moderate Chop
Wind Direction Southeast
Wind Strength 11-21 knots
Ais shows tracks to Dittisham yesterday and to Slapton today

Map: trackaship universal

Lifeboat Crew

Rich Eggleton (Helm)
Buster Hart
Yorkie Lomas
Stuart Millard

Shore Crew

Deputy Launch Authority

Sophie Rennie

Station address

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

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RNLI Visitor Centre
9 South Embankment (Ground Floor)
Dartmouth
Devon TQ6 9BH

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