Nine rescued by RNLI crew

Nine rescued by RNLI crew

26 August 2015

PORTAFERRY lifeboat went to the aid of nine people who were on board a yacht which suffered steering problems on Strangford Lough on Saturday.

The crew of the inshore Atlantic 85 lifeboat was paged at 4.32pm after the owner of the 40 foot yacht asked for assistance.

The lifeboat was on scene just east of Dead Man’s Rock in Strangford Lough at 4.50pm where they met the stricken yacht which had four adults and five children on board.

 At the time the weather was cloudy with rain, a slight breeze and good visibility.

Once they had assessed the situation, the RNLI crew took the yacht alongside and commenced towed it to moorings at Ringhaddy. The operation took just under one hour.

Brian Bailie, Lifeboat Operations Manager for the Portaferry RNLI Station said: ‘We had a particularly quick response time today as a number of volunteer crew members were already at the station for a fundraising tractor run. 

“Once again the hard work and dedication of our volunteer crew members has resulted in today’s call out culminating in a happy ending with everyone returned home safely,” he added.